Lets take an everyday English word — "footwear" — that combines two independent nouns, "foot" and "wear," to create the general term for things people wear on their feet. In Japanese the word is 履物 (haki-mono), formed by combining a form of the verb 履く (haku, to wear on the foot or lower body) and 物 (mono, thing).
With the same formula you can make words like 着物 (ki-mono, an article of clothing), formed from 着る (kiru, to wear); 被り物 (kaburi-mono, head gear), formed from 被る (kaburu, to wear on the head); and so on.
As an aid to understanding, throughout today's column I've selectively inserted hyphens to indicate where the word breaks occur.