The Chinese word 爵士 (juéshì) for "jazz" is formed through a process of phonetic borrowing, where two existing characters are selected primarily for how closely their combined pronunciation mimics the sound of the English source word "jazz". The character 爵 (jué), meaning "nobility" or "peerage", approximates the "ja-" sound, while 士 (shì), meaning "scholar" or "warrior", approximates the "-zz" sound. The resulting compound carries a faint, incidental connotation of "noble scholar", but this meaning is secondary and largely coincidental to the primary purpose of creating an auditory match for the foreign musical term.