The character 婊 is formed by combining the radical 女 (woman) with the phonetic and semantic component 表 (which originally meant "outer surface" or "to show outwardly"). This creates a conceptual blend implying a woman whose identity or value is superficially or outwardly presented. The added 子 is a common suffix that nominalizes it. Thus, the entire formation moves from the idea of "external display" attached to "female" to construct a pejorative term historically referring to a prostitute, heavily implying a perception of false or transactional outward appearance.