The word 陌生 is formed by combining two characters, each contributing to the overall meaning of "strange" or "unfamiliar". The first character, 陌, originally meant a path between fields in the countryside, a place one does not know well. The second, 生, carries the core meaning of "birth" or "raw", and by extension, something new, unacquainted, or not yet familiar. Together, they create a vivid conceptual blend: the sense of encountering a path or a person that feels freshly born into one's awareness, entirely new and not yet known, much like an unfamiliar country lane.