Random new word of the day

[Lu]

萬靈丹 wan4ling2dan1 first I thought it was someone's name, but it actually means panacea, the one cure for everything.

[roddy]

Looks like we neglected this one for a week or so . . .

只消， zhǐxiāo, need only to . . . 消 here being a contraction of 需要, similar to 甭 I guess. Hadn't seen that before, or at least registered it.

[roddy]

步话机, bùhuàjī - go on . . guess . . .

[yersi]

Hah, I gave up and googled 步话机. Can it be used with people or does it mean just that Hello Kitty toy?

Came over a new word today while reading an article about the Bear Sterns bail-out

挹注 - yi4zhu4

Means to take something from a surplus to fill a shortage somewhere else.

[roddy]

胴体, dòngtǐ, trunk (of a body, especially a slaughtered animal), according to the ABC. According to Google image search it seems to be used more for that of the lesser-clothed female. (sh)

[skylee]

does it mean walkie-talkie?

[zhwj]

And according to Baidu image search, 胴体 doesn't mean much of anything....

[Lu]

跨性別 kua4xing4bie2 transgender

變性人 bian4xing4ren2 transsexual

I'm not entirely sure what the difference is. Thought I had figured it out with explanations on wikipedia: transgender is anyone who doesn't identify with their birth sex, while transsexuals are people who really change their gender, either with or without operation.

But then when I sent the translation (it was about the pregnant man) up to the author she changed some of the terms, and now I'm still left confused. I suppose if I run into a trans-anything I'll just deal with the terms on an individual basis :-p

[Sam Addington]

Define 拚: [ pàn, pīn ]

[ 国标码:DED5 部首:扌 笔画:8 笔顺:12154132 ]

1. reject

2. disregard

Relative explainations:

Examples:

1. 他继续这样拚命地工作，就会累垮的。

If he doesn't stop working so hard, he'll burn himself out.

I am trying to read 棋王。I found it in there

我们学校与旁边几个中学常常有学生之间的象棋厮杀，后来拚出几个高手。几个高手之间常摆擂台，渐渐地，几乎每次冠军就都是王一生了。

I think it may have a different meaning here. In another dictionary I found

to go all out; to try very hard to

[heifeng]

造孽： zao4nie4 do evil, commit a sin: from 错爱，a tv series that i find really disturbing for some reason, yet still don't just switch to another channel...(i think their 后妈is kinda crazy:( )

沦：lun2: sink to, be reduced to: 沦为乞丐，沦落街头，沦落异乡

[heifeng]

this will be by far the most useful word on this thread:

鱼嘴鞋: yu2zui3xie2: open toe shoes, like these

oh yeah, and on the other end of the spectrum...there is this chengyu:

沆瀣一气: hang4xie4yi1qi4 :act in collusion with;wallow in the mire with,

which is pretty easy to spot in recent headlines about those two places that start with a "T"

[cdn_in_bj]

星國 Xing1guo2 Singapore. It appears to be newspaper-speak.

I've also seen it referred to as 星州.

As in, 星州炒米粉 (Singapore fried noodles).

[yersi]

髮辮: fa1bian4: braids, plaits.

Found it in an article about the economic rise of Africa:

紮著非洲式髮辮

[heifeng]

I'm 'pretty' sure fa is 4th tone here...

true, this can be a bit confusing if it was in simplified since it's just written as 发 however since this is fa as in toufa here it should be 4th.....

[yersi]

We're both wrong, I think. My dictionary lists it as fa3.

[heifeng]

hmmm third tone!?

it says forth here

I'm gonna look at a different dictionary now too though..

ok, also listed as 4th and there are only 2 pronunciations of fa with third tone..neither of which is that particular fa...

i'm more doubtful of the 3rd tone than I was of the 1st tone:mrgreen:

[imron]

My 现代汉语词典 also says fàbiàn.

[gougou]

How about a "random tone of the day" thread?

[heifeng]

hehehe...we need a computer game that shoots down characters when we get the tone correct.

anyway, this lil' tone exercise did lead me to another random word:

天平 tian1ping2, a balance, where the 砝码fa3ma3 is the metal weight that you put on one side of the balance..,ie 标准砝码Standard Weight

[skylee]

The fa3 bian4 vs fa4 bian4 thing is a taiwan standard vs mainland standard thing.

This is from a Taiwan Ministry of Education website -> http://140.111.34.46/cgi-bin/newDict/dict.sh?idx=dict.idx&cond=%BEv%C4%7C&pieceLen=50&fld=1&cat=&imgFont=1

髮辮

注音一式　ㄈㄚˇ　ㄅ｜ㄢˋ

將頭髮交互纏繞編成的辮子。如：「她把長髮結成髮辮，辮稍綁上蝴蝶結，顯得俏麗可愛。」

Here is a relevant thread -> Characters with different pronunciations on Mainland / Taiwan

And a useful list here -> http://zhongwen.com/x/guopu.htm