The word 青少年 is formed by combining three meaningful characters: 青 (qīng), which originally means "blue" or "green" and by extension conveys the idea of youthful freshness and vitality, like unripe fruit or young grass; 少 (shào), meaning "young" or "few", directly indicating early life; and 年 (nián), meaning "year" or "age". The term is a conceptual blend where 青 poetically modifies and intensifies the core idea of 少年 (young person), creating a composite that specifically denotes the stage of "youth" or "adolescence", encompassing both the greenness of youth and the specific years of being young.