The word 英尺 is formed by combining two characters: 英, which denotes "British" or "England", and 尺, the traditional Chinese unit of length meaning "chi" or "Chinese foot". The compound directly creates a new, specific unit by attaching the foreign system's origin (英) to the indigenous concept of a foot-like measurement (尺), resulting in the meaning "British foot", or the imperial unit "foot". It is a direct calque, mapping a foreign measurement onto the familiar framework of Chinese metrology.