The word "希腊" (Xīlà), meaning "Greece", is formed through a process of phonetic borrowing, where two existing Chinese characters are selected almost exclusively for the sound they represent to approximate the pronunciation of the foreign name. Specifically, "希" (xī) and "腊" (là) combine to mimic the sound of "Hellas", the native Greek name for the country, as transmitted through linguistic and cultural contact, rather than through the meanings of the individual characters. This creates a fixed, disyllabic unit that functions purely as a phonetic label for the foreign entity.