The word **鼹鼠** (yǎnshǔ, meaning "mole") is a **morphological compound** formed by combining two meaningful characters: **鼹**, which historically carries connotations related to burrowing, darkness, or hiding (derived from its phonetic component **晏** yàn, meaning "calm/dark," and the radical **鼠** shǔ, hinting at its category), and **鼠** (shǔ), which means "rodent" or "mouse." Together, they form a **determinative compound** where 鼠 classifies the animal as a rodent, and 鼹 specifies the particular type—effectively creating a precise term for a small, subterranean, mouse-like mammal.