The word "芝士" for "cheese" is formed through a purely phonetic process, where two existing Chinese characters are chosen solely for the sound they represent to mimic the English word "cheese". The first character "芝" (zhī) approximates the "chee" sound, while the second character "士" (shì) approximates the "se" sound. When combined, their original meanings ("sesame" and "scholar", respectively) are completely disregarded, creating a new word that functions as a sound-based loanword for the foreign food item.