The word 基督 (Jīdū), meaning "Christ", is formed through a process of phonetic translation, specifically transliteration, from a foreign language into Chinese. It originates from the Greek "Χριστός" (Christós), which entered Chinese primarily through early missionary work, likely via the Latin "Christus". The two characters 基 (jī) and 督 (dū) were chosen not for their individual meanings (which are "foundation" and "superintend" respectively), but because their combined pronunciation closely approximates the sounds of the source word, creating a dedicated phonetic label for the religious concept.