The Chinese word 韦伯 (Wéibó) is a phonetic loanword formed through transliteration, specifically to represent the sound of the foreign name "Weber" (as in the sociologist Max Weber). The characters are chosen not for their intrinsic meanings ("韦" historically refers to tanned leather, and "伯" means uncle or eldest brother) but because their combined pronunciation in Mandarin closely approximates the original name's syllables. This is a standard method in Chinese for adopting foreign proper nouns, where semantic meaning is sacrificed for auditory fidelity.