The Chinese word 北京 (Běijīng), meaning "Beijing", is formed through a classic process of semantic compounding, where two meaningful characters combine to create a new, specific meaning. The first character, 北 (běi), means "north", and the second, 京 (jīng), means "capital". Historically, this name was formally established during the early Ming Dynasty in the 15th century to distinguish it from the former primary capital, Nanjing ("Southern Capital"), signifying its new status as the "Northern Capital" of the empire. Thus, the term is not a phonetic borrowing but a descriptive, location-based compound that has endured as the city's official name.