The Chinese word 丹麦 (Dānmài), meaning "Denmark", is a phonetic transliteration formed through the common Chinese practice of Xiesheng (phonetic borrowing). The two characters 丹 (dān) and 麦 (mài) were chosen primarily for their combined pronunciation, which approximates the sound of the country's name in English or other European languages. While the characters individually carry meanings ("丹" means red or cinnabar, and "麦" means wheat), these meanings are largely incidental and not descriptive of the country; their primary function is to replicate the foreign sound within the constraints of the Chinese syllabic system, resulting in a standardized, fixed proper noun.