أحصن
Aḥṣana
To keep oneself pure from illegitimate sexual contact; muḥṣin and muḥṣana name a man or woman who guards chastity.
What it means
The root ḥ-ṣ-n gives the idea of a fortress, and aḥṣana means to protect oneself within one, here against illegitimate sexual contact. The derived forms are muḥṣin (plural muḥṣinūn) for a man and muḥṣana (plural muḥṣanāt) for a woman. The Quran uses muḥṣanāt for chaste women, as in the verse on those who accuse them falsely (24:4), and for married women (4:24). In the law of zinā the status of iḥṣān affects the ruling, and jurists set out its conditions in detail.
Often misunderstood as
It is often rendered simply as “chaste” or “married”, whereas the Arabic covers both as forms of protecting one’s purity.
Term and Arabic as listed in Ismail al Faruqi, Toward Islamic English (International Institute of Islamic Thought, 1995), p. 29, listed as AḤṢANA. The definition is restated here.