The Chinese word "伦敦" (Lúndūn) for "London" is formed primarily through a process of phonetic approximation, where two existing Chinese characters are selected not for their meanings but for how closely their combined sounds mimic the foreign name's pronunciation, "Lún" approximates "Lon" and "dūn" approximates "don". Additionally, there is a conventional practice in Chinese transliteration to choose characters that carry neutral or vaguely positive connotations (here, 伦 implying "ethics" and 敦 implying "sincerity"), resulting in a compound that sounds like the original while being composed of semantically inoffensive, pre-existing linguistic symbols.