The Chinese word 秘鲁 (Mìlǔ) for "Peru" is a phonetic transliteration formed through a process called 音译 (yīnyì), where existing Chinese characters are chosen primarily for their sound rather than their meaning. The characters 秘 (mì, meaning "secret") and 鲁 (lǔ, meaning "blunt" or "rudimentary") approximate the pronunciation of the country's English name "Peru", with the combination "Mìlǔ" mimicking the two-syllable sound. This method is standard in Chinese for foreign proper nouns, creating a stable and recognizable label, even though the individual characters' original meanings are irrelevant and not intended to be descriptive of the country itself.