The word "法国" (Fǎguó) for "France" is formed through a common Chinese practice for translating foreign proper nouns, specifically by combining a character chosen for its approximate phonetic sound with a character that indicates meaning or category. Here, "法" (Fǎ) is primarily a phonetic borrowing, approximating the first syllable of "France" as historically encountered, while "国" (guó) means "country", acting as a semantic classifier to clarify that the term refers to a nation-state. Thus, it is a phono-semantic compound designed for a foreign name.