The term 尤物 (yóuwù) is formed through the semantic combination of its two characters: 尤, which historically carries meanings of "outstanding", "exceptional", or "particularly", and 物, meaning "thing" or "entity". Originally used in classical texts like the Zuozhuan to denote any "remarkable object", its meaning narrowed through literary usage to refer specifically to an "extraordinarily captivating person", almost exclusively a woman whose beauty is so striking it is considered superlative and often, by traditional moralistic interpretation, dangerously distracting or blameworthy. Thus, the word’s formation exemplifies a shift from a general descriptor of exceptional objects to a culturally loaded term for mesmerizing feminine allure.