The word "韦德" is formed through a process of phonetic translation, specifically to represent the sound of the foreign name "Wade". The two characters, 韦 (wéi) and 德 (dé), were selected primarily because their combined pronunciation in Mandarin closely approximates the English name. While each character individually carries its own meaning (韦 can refer to soft leather or a surname, and 德 means virtue or morality), in this combined form, those meanings are largely incidental and subordinated to the primary goal of sound imitation, resulting in a coined term whose essence is sonic rather than semantic.