The word "大西洋" (Dàxīyáng), meaning "Atlantic Ocean", is a compound term formed through semantic combination: "大" (dà) means "great" or "big", "西" (xī) means "west", and "洋" (yáng) means "ocean". It is a direct calque, or loan translation, from the Western concept of the "Atlantic Ocean", historically coined by Ming Dynasty translators like Matteo Ricci to geographically denote the "Great Western Ocean" lying to the west of Eurasia from a Chinese perspective, thus forming a precise, descriptive name for this specific body of water.