The Chinese term "中东" (Zhōngdōng) for "Middle East" is a direct calque, or loan translation, formed by combining the characters for "middle" (中, zhōng) and "east" (东, dōng). It is a modern compound noun created in the 19th or early 20th century to geographically and politically translate the English concept, literally meaning the "Middle East" region situated between the "Near East" and "Far East" from a Eurocentric perspective. This formation follows the common Chinese practice of constructing precise, descriptive compound words by logically combining meaningful semantic components.