The Chinese word **米兰** (Mǐlán) is a **phonetic loan translation** formed primarily through transliteration, where the two syllables 米 (mǐ) and 兰 (lán) were chosen to approximate the sound of the foreign name "Milan." While the individual characters carry their own meanings ("rice" and "orchid," respectively), in this compound they are used purely for their phonetic value to represent the Italian city's name. This is a standard method in Chinese for adopting foreign proper nouns, with the resulting word becoming a fixed, semantically empty label for the specific referent.