The term 殿下 is formed through a spatial metaphor of deference. It literally means "below the palace hall", referring not to the person directly, but to the space beneath the raised platform of their audience hall. By addressing someone as "the space below your high dais", it indirectly and respectfully signifies the exalted personage who stands upon that dais, embodying a traditional Chinese honorific practice that elevates nobility by referencing their exalted architectural surroundings rather than naming them outright.