The Chinese word 巴西 (Bāxī) for "Brazil" is formed through a process of phonetic borrowing and semantic association. The two characters were chosen primarily for their sound, with 巴 (bā) approximating the first syllable "Bra-" and 西 (xī) approximating the second syllable "-zil". While the selection is fundamentally phonetic, the character 西, which means "west", also provides a loose, associative meaning, as Brazil is located in the Western Hemisphere, giving the transliteration a subtle layer of descriptive context beyond mere sound imitation.