The term 淑女 (shūnǚ), meaning "a virtuous and refined woman" or "a lady", is a classical compound formed by combining two characters: 淑 (shū), which originally depicted water and means "pure", "gentle", or "kind-hearted", and 女 (nǚ), the basic character for "woman" or "female". Together, they create a semantic compound where the modifier 淑 describes the ideal qualities of the 女, encapsulating the traditional Confucian ideal of feminine virtue, elegance, and moral integrity in a single, culturally resonant word.