The word "少女" is formed by combining two characters: "少", which conveys the idea of youth or being few in the sense of early stage, and "女", which represents the concept of a female or woman. Together, these characters merge their meanings to depict a young female, specifically a girl in the bloom of adolescence, through a direct semantic fusion where "少" modifies "女" to specify youth. This formation relies on the pictorial and conceptual nature of Chinese characters, where each component contributes visually and ideographically to create a compound term that intuitively communicates the notion of a maiden or young woman.