The word 侏儒 (zhūrú, meaning "dwarf" or "midget") is formed through a meaningful combination of two characters that both convey the idea of smallness or shortness. The character 侏 historically relates to shortness of stature, while 儒, though famously meaning "scholar", in this archaic compound takes on an extended sense of "person". Thus, the compound essentially pairs two synonymous concepts, "short" and "small person", to create a single, reinforced term describing a person of unusually short stature.