Random new word of the day

[Lu]

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

Thank you skylee for clearing this up. I kept getting confused about why fa4shi4 seemed to sound wrong when I say it that way, when that is really what I learned.

Random word, not really a new one:

天秤座 tian1ping2zuo4 libra, the sign. I used to act it out, but people here ask so often that by now I know the word.

[yersi]

Thanks for clearing that up, skylee (I'm in Taiwan, for the record).

Another two random words (and hopefully no pinyin mistakes this time ):

在野党: zai4 ye3 dang3: opposition party

执政党: zhi2 zheng4 dang3: ruling party

[roddy]

Ho Ho, looks like we've finally run out of new words.

[roddy]

有条不紊， yǒutiáobùwěn, systematically. Hadn't seen the final character before, means disorder and is also in 紊流, turbulence.

[imron]

Hadn't seen the final character before

Well, you should probably make sure to get the tone correct before you commit it to memory.

[heifeng]

稠 chou2: thick or dense

ie. 如何才能让自己熬的大米粥又浓又稠

of course there are other usages, but it seems to be used to describe porridge often.

Anyway this all came up when talking about the drink 营养快线 with a friend...should it be described as 浓 or 稠? if it's 浓 doesn't it refer to the concentration of the drink rather than consistency?...but then when describing a milkshake I would say 浓 but maybe that's technically refering to the proportion of ice cream..hmm..still trying to figure it out. However my Chinese friend described 营养快线 as 稠 so I guess that's what I'm sticking to for now..

[yersi]

Haha, I'm not doing so well in this thread. Okay, here's another one

瘪三 （癟三): bie3san1: A wretched-looking tramp who lives by begging or stealing

[gougou]

浴霸 (yu4ba4): The heating lamps used in Chinese* bathrooms. Also what's been keeping me busy the last couple of days...

* Or are there other places that use them? I had never seen them before coming here.

[roddy]

Right, lets see if I can get the pinyin right for once . . .

弥撒, mísa, Catholic Mass.

[yersi]

胼胝: pian2zhi1: callus

Used in the following compound 胼手胝足 "calluses on hands and feet" to express hard toil over a long period of time.

[hidden12345]

from hanging out with my girlfriend and her weirdo friends

一号 “top"

零号 "bottom"

as in gay guys.

[Lu]

You could wait for this one:

CNN xi1en1en1 distorting the truth (形容词)

According to my teacher, who had no idea what it meant when she first saw it, but found an explanation later.

[monto]

CNN xi1en1en1 distorting the truth (形容词)

I can think of

CNN 歪曲/扭曲事实/真相 or CNN颠倒黑白。

but none of them is 形容词.

[Outofin]

采花贼 or 采花大盗

rapist

[Lu]

I can think of

CNN 歪曲/扭曲事实/真相 or CNN颠倒黑白。

but none of them is 形容词.

No, this is 'CNN' itself as the 形容词, as in 说话不要这么CNN.

[Lu]

魚種 yu2zhong3 fingerling, which in turn means baby fish.

育成 yu4cheng2 this seems to mean incubator.

From an article about the looming food crisis, and that fish could help.

[roddy]

郎中, lángzhōng, herbal doctor, from my viewing of 神探狄仁杰

[heifeng]

these aren't thaaat random, but somewhat useful.

Panchen Lama 班禪喇嘛 ban1chan2la3ma5

to lose one's hearing: 失聪 shi1cong1

These were just from a practice exam I took the other day...

[heifeng]

掰手腕: bai1shou3wan4: arm wrestle

皴:cun1: (skin) chapped from the cold:小孩子的手皴了 (however, if you wanna say chapped lips, should use 裂 lie4: chapped/cracked 嘴唇裂了 instead...)

these are from the list of relatively 'mosheng' characters on the PCS I'm trying to plow through:mrgreen:

[edit] oh yeah, here's a simple duoyinzi i've been forgetting to add for over a month which is easy to screw up if you don't know the correct pronunciation:mrgreen:

亲家qing4jia5: in-laws

[imron]

亲家qing4jia5: in-laws

That's a nasty one!