The word 鲸鱼 (whale) is formed through a descriptive, conceptual combination where the first character 鲸 specifically denotes the whale itself, a massive marine mammal, and the second character 鱼 means "fish". This combination historically reflects the ancient perception and classification of the whale as a giant creature of the sea, visually and contextually grouped with fish, thereby creating a compound that literally translates to "whale-fish" to name the animal.