The word "克隆" (kèlóng) is formed through a process of phonetic borrowing, specifically to translate the English scientific term "clone". Its formation is not based on meaning, but entirely on sound: the two characters were chosen because their combined pronunciation closely approximates the English word. The characters themselves ("克" meaning 'overcome' and "隆" meaning 'prosperous') carry no semantic relation to biological replication; they function purely as phonetic symbols. This type of word creation was a common strategy in modern Chinese, particularly during the 20th century, for adopting new Western technical and scientific vocabulary, resulting in a term that sounds foreign and conceptually "empty" of intrinsic meaning, which is then filled by its defined scientific concept.