The Chinese word **牛津** (Niújīn), meaning "Oxford," is formed through a process of semantic translation, where the original English place name's meaning is directly translated into Chinese characters that convey equivalent imagery. The name "Oxford" historically refers to a place where oxen could ford a river. This concept is replicated in Chinese by combining **牛** (niú), meaning "ox," with **津** (jīn), an elegant literary term for "ford" or "ferry crossing." Therefore, it is a **calque** or loan translation, creating a meaningful name that is phonetically unrelated to the English pronunciation but perfectly captures its original literal meaning in a way that is both semantically accurate and lexically natural in Chinese.