The word "暹粒" is formed through phonetic transliteration of the Cambodian city name "Siem Reap", where the character "暹" is used for its sound "xiān" to approximate "Siem" and has historical usage in terms like "暹罗" for Siam, while "粒" is used for its sound "lì" to approximate "Reap", resulting in a combined representation that prioritizes auditory resemblance over the literal meanings of the individual characters.