The word 先贤 is formed by combining the character 先, meaning "earlier" or "before", which denotes precedence in time, with the character 贤, meaning "virtuous" or "worthy", which denotes moral excellence. Together, they create a compound term where 先 specifies the temporal aspect of being from the past, and 贤 specifies the qualitative aspect of being ethically admirable, resulting in a noun that refers to virtuous predecessors or ancient sages.