The word "奠基" is formed by combining the character "奠", which originally depicted a ritual offering of wine from a vessel ("酉") with "大" suggesting significance, to mean "to establish", and "基", which combines "土" for earth and "其" primarily as a phonetic element, to mean "foundation". Together, they literally denote the act of laying a foundation, where "奠" provides the action of establishing and "基" specifies the base being set.