The Chinese word 武术 (wǔshù), meaning "martial art", is a compound term formed by combining two meaningful characters: 武 (wǔ), which originally depicted a person armed with a weapon and conveys the meanings of "military", "martial", or "related to combat", and 术 (shù), which signifies "art", "technique", "method", or "skill". When combined, these characters create a conceptual synthesis where 武 specifies the domain (martial or combat-related) and 术 specifies the nature of the practice (a systematized art or skill), thus literally and precisely meaning "the art of combat" or "martial techniques". This formation follows the common Chinese linguistic pattern of combining two root words to generate a new, specific compound term that is more descriptive than either character alone.