The word 香肠 (xiāngcháng), meaning "sausage", is formed by directly combining two meaningful characters: 香 (xiāng), meaning "fragrant" or "aromatic", and 肠 (cháng), meaning "intestine" or "gut". It is a simple, descriptive compound where the first character denotes a key sensory quality (its pleasing smell when cooked) and the second denotes the physical form or original casing (the intestine), together creating a vivid image of "fragrant intestines" to represent the food item.