A list of difficult words

[Esprit]

Literally translating it, it would be 'the sword has been drawn, and the bow has been flexed', this describes a tense, threatening situation where one is ready to go on the offensive and become aggressive.

[Esprit]

I think the first word is a person's name and the second word means a fierce/aggressive almost evil temperament.

Therefore the whole sentence will be translated as: Rose's gentleness melts away Xiaosha's fierce/aggressive temperament at the nick of time.

[Esprit]

I'm not 100% sure but I think it means weird/unusual.

[Pravit]

3. party leader

4. From Baidu searches I'm guessing it means ripping music from movies

Also, it helps if you can provide the context in which you find the words.

[roddy]

Merged all of Koneko's 'what's this word' topics into one - might make them a little hard to follow, sorry.

Koneko, and everyone - if you have a 'what does this mean' query, can you please

1) Give context: Where is it from? Give the sentence. Mainland or Taiwan? Classical or modern?

2)What do you think it means? What have you done to try and figure it out yourself

[semantic nuance]

吊詭--paradoxical

hope it helps!

[ljp200]

驸马爷is the husband of infanta

[chenpv]

吊詭--paradoxical

Thanks, semantic nuance. I have been long curious if there is a counterpart in Chinese has the exact meaning of 'paradoxical'. And now here it is. I also did a search in Baidu and some results are quite diverting.

1.What does '吊诡' mean?

《庄子·齐物论》：“丘也与汝皆梦也，予谓汝梦，亦梦也。是其言也，其名为吊诡。”陆德明释文：“吊，如字，又音的，至也；诡，异也。”

2.The meaning of '吊诡'

我不知道「弔詭」這個詞出自哪裡，但是近年來這個詞是被當作paradox的中文翻譯，它的意思是：「一個句子﹝陳述﹞是弔詭的，如果使其為真的條件，剛好使其為假。」

......

當然這個詞也有不同的用法，像上面迷迭香的用法是比較接近文學的用法，就是指「一件事情很奇怪，卻不知道哪裡怪怪的。」

At last, I don't know if it is just me or maybe others who have similiar feelings that ‘吊诡’很吊诡。

攫匪

Errr, anyone has some thoughts on this word? It seems quite weird to me because I am not so sure I have ever seen '攫' used as adjective.

4. 浮声掠影

浮光掠影

[studentyoung]

@Koneko

But why do we need the Kanji of "Horse" in there??

In fact, “附马”was an official title in Han Dynasty, and its full name was “驸马都尉” for officials who were in charge of horses and carriages.

In an old book called “搜神记” says that there was a young man called 辛道度 in Han Dynasty who once got a late princess’ gold pillow, and the her mother recognized the gold pillow and took it as a sign that her late daughter picked this young man as her husband. Therefore, the young man was conferred 附马都尉 and bestowed a lot of treasure. From then on, king’s son-in-law was called 附马.

http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/3377028.html (“附马”二字的由来)

Thanks!

[HashiriKata]

God, there are so many hard words/phrases in Chinese!!!

I think Koneko should get a prize for this discovery.

[Koneko]

Thank you so much for your help!

As per Roddy's request:-

All the words/ phrases were taken from news articles. They were neither from China nor Taiwan. Actually, I got them from Sinchew online, one of the leading Chinese newspapers in Malaysia. They were written in Baihuawen (Modern Chinese).

I couldn't find their meanings from Zhongwen.com or/and Iciba.com, I shall give you my own interpretations later.

I am going to rearrange my words/phrases as Item A, B, C, etc

Please ignore my previous entries as 1, 2, 3 because they got a bit messy after being merged by Roddy.

A.攫匪

妈妈王翠英去年8月1日遇攫匪倒地猝死，警方至今也未告知案件结果。

Robber

B.剑拔弩张

那一晚，泰国的军人把坦克开入曼谷，士兵们面无表情地背著枪炮进驻各自分属的据点，空气紧绷，剑拔弩张。

To brandish sword and bow?

C. 吊诡

这真是吊诡的一幕，但是全世界都看到了─玫瑰与枪的组合。

Dangerous?

D.肃杀的戾气

是的，或者可以说是玫瑰的娇柔及时化解了肃杀的戾气；任谁都没想到玫瑰会有如此大的力量，但这弱不禁风的单薄小花，确实让全世界大开眼界了。

Killing gas?

E. 驸马爷

先是驸马爷，毕业自牛津大学的巫青团副团长，马来青年知识精英的代表人物凯里论及槟州马来人被边缘化云云。马华与华团舆论哗然，提出证据与反证，然后偃息旗鼓一阵子。

Horse carer?

F. 偃息旗鼓

先是驸马爷，毕业自牛津大学的巫青团副团长，马来青年知识精英的代表人物凯里论及槟州马来人被边缘化云云。马华与华团舆论哗然，提出证据与反证，然后偃息旗鼓一阵子。

Stop waving the flag and playing the drum?

G.广袤

相对於北京、广袤的陆地，港岛无疑是边缘的边缘。

Wide and spacious?

H.跛脚鸭

布莱尔此前被讥为是斗败了的跛脚鸭，但他当天在工党大会上，不但赢得了党同僚7分钟的掌声，还受到两度起立致敬，更像是一位将光荣引退的王者。

One-legged duck?

J. 党魁

遭到逼宫而不得不承诺会在明年下台的英国首相布莱尔，最近在工党年会最后一次以党魁身份发表演说时，说出了这麽一句令人动容的话∶“让位很难，但让位对国家和党是正确的”。

Party leader?

K. 浮声掠影

In a split second?