The Chinese word "拷贝" (kǎobèi) is a phonetic loanword, or transcription, formed to approximate the sound of the English word "copy". It employs the characters "拷" (kǎo), which primarily means "to beat" or "to torture" but is used here solely for its sound, and "贝" (bèi), meaning "shell" or "currency", again chosen for its phonetic value to complete the syllable. This method of word formation, common in modern Chinese for importing foreign terms, results in a word that carries no inherent semantic meaning from its individual characters in this context; instead, its meaning is derived entirely from the borrowed concept, functioning as both a noun ("a copy") and a verb ("to copy") in technological and general usage.