The character 祖母, meaning "paternal grandmother", is formed by combining two meaningful components. The first part, 祖 (zǔ), originally depicted a ceremonial altar for ancestral worship and carries the meaning of "ancestor" or "forefather". The second part, 母 (mǔ), is a pictogram representing a woman with emphasized breasts, meaning "mother". Together, they create a conceptual compound signifying the "ancestral mother" or the mother of one's father, visually and semantically defining the specific familial role through this logical juxtaposition.