The word **宝马** (Bǎomǎ) is a compound formed through semantic combination, where **宝** (bǎo) means "treasure" or "precious," and **马** (mǎ) means "horse," creating the literal meaning "precious horse"—a classical term for a fine, valuable steed. In modern usage, it functions as a phono-semantic matching translation for the German car brand BMW, where "BMW" is loosely associated with **宝** (suggesting luxury and value) and **马** (evoking the power and speed of a horse, akin to "horsepower" for a car), thus creatively adapting both sound and meaning to resonate with Chinese cultural associations.