The Chinese word 金刚 (jīngāng) is a compound term formed through semantic combination and cultural-linguistic borrowing: its first character 金 means "metal" or "gold", and the second 刚 means "hard" or "indestructible", together creating the literal sense of "metal-hard" or "diamond-like". It originated as a translation of the Sanskrit Buddhist term vajra (meaning both the thunderbolt weapon and the diamond, symbolizing ultimate hardness and clarity), and in Chinese Buddhism it refers to diamond-tough guardian deities (金刚神) or the diamond wisdom that cuts through illusion. Over time, the term expanded beyond religious texts into common usage, denoting extreme hardness (e.g., 金刚石 for diamond) and, in modern popular culture, was famously borrowed phonetically as the name for the giant ape King Kong (金刚), preserving the idea of immense strength and invulnerability.