Random new word of the day

[heifeng]

盘根错节pán gēn cuò jié: w/ twisted roots and gnarled branches ~ complicated and difficult to deal with.. (sounds like an useful chengyu to me)

三七 san1qi1: pseudo ginseng or Sanchi see here and here

怪圈 guai4quan1: vicious circle, but then there is 麦田怪圈 for crop circles...which is nice and random

oh...and from watching too much random entertainment television...囧 jiong3 suppose to be the newest most popular character online these days...the expression on the lil' guy's face says it all for what it means..or just search it...

[Lu]

愛樂 ai4yue4 philharmonic. From the name of one or the other philharmonic orchestra. In a way it makes so much sense: 愛樂 = love music = phil-harmonic. But at the same time it's rather tautological in the name of an orchestra: if they didn't love music, they wouldn't be sitting there playing it now would they.

[randall_flagg]

布洛芬释胶囊 bu4luo4fen1shi4jiao1nang2 ibuprofen source: friend with a toothache.

[zhwj]

胶囊 is a capsule, 布洛芬 is ibuprofen in any form (which may be useful if they don't have capsules).

[ajax]

I always ask for 芬必得/fen1bi4de2. I guess it's a brand name, but it's kind of like saying tylenol rather than acetaminophen.

Another one: 环丙沙星/huan2bing3sha1xing1 (Cipro). Resisting the urge to take this right now (ate some bad 烧烤).

[imron]

Not a new word, but an interesting phrase:

人不行,怪路不平 - rén bù xíng，guài lù bù píng - An equivalent of "a poor workman always blames his tools".

[randall_flagg]

售罄 shou4qing4 to be completely sold out.

Source: An article about the tickets for Beijing Games.

[Lu]

綱領 gang3ling3 essential guidelines, program, platform, for example of the CCP.

Seen this word before and always read it as wangling (網領) and couldn't find it anywhere. My coworker just set me right. I feel Chinese tripped me and is now laughing in my face, really loud, while I am on the ground squeeking: It's not fair!! 誰叫你 to make two characters look exactly alike!

[skylee]

exactly alike!

[heifeng]

from watching healthy olympics living something or rather today and an interesting segment about 胃病:

幽门 you1men2: Pylorus

and while we are on 幽, let's also go with something funner:

幽会you1hui4: a lover's rendezvous.....I learned this from a former coworker at a dinner when she announced she was going to go on one so had to hurry up and leave(sh)...so now it's forever branded in my memory and whenever I think of her, it reminds me of this word plus this classic

and since we are still on y's, why not

臃肿 yong1zhong3: so overweight one cannot move...or of an organization being overstaffed, or even clothing being overly cumbersome. (this one was just from flipping through the dictionary for another probably more useful word...which of course I don't even remember now)

[rob07]

而立之年 (er2 li4 zhi1 nian2) - 30 years of age. Literal translation would be something like "the age at which one stands firm" based on the passage below by Confucius where he explains where he was at each stage in his life. I saw it in 阿Q正传, where it is heavily sarcastic.

子曰：吾，十有五，而志于学，三十而立，四十而不惑，五十而知天命，六十而耳顺，七十而从心所欲，不逾矩。

[roddy]

超级党代表, chāojí dǎngdàibiǎo - super-delegate

[imron]

Here's a great one I just heard then while watching 好想好想谈恋爱:

鼻屎 - bǐshǐ - boogers, or more literally, nose-shit

[Lu]

如火如荼

That last one is not cha2 茶 but tu2 荼, although you can only tell the difference when you actually see them next to one another, so it reads ru2 huo3 ru2 tu2. Means something like vigorous, intense (according to my dictionary).

[skylee]

貔貅

Read it in 北京法源寺 today, wrote it twice on a piece of paper hoping that I would remember how to write it. I am sure I can recognise it when I see it, but have no confidence that I can write it.

[mira_mio]

please, what is 超级党代表?

or or 貔貅, i can't type that, had to copy and paste

You people are not supposed to learn words that ordinary Chinese people dont know! that makes us look really bad *big pool of tears*

[imron]

You'll probably enjoy this joke then

一个戗箜翮拿着簪齑郓黼芈氕嫠夤疋，突然蕺鬏餮麴羹鼙貔氅餍饔墼槭跸醴鼷痍髭蘖，于是就死了。

这个故事名字叫《没文化真不幸》。

[mira_mio]

as a Mod, Mr. you are ron, you aren't supposed to discourage new members....says my bruised ego... *sniff*

[imron]

Actually, us admin are supposed to meanies who stamp on puppies.

p.s. I am not ron

p.p.s random word to prevent this getting off topic - 宕机 － dàngjī － down, as in: the server's gone down 服务器宕机了.

[mira_mio]

but "imron"...nevermind

Well I suggest we stop obsessing over uncommon rarely used words, and let's pick up some "in" new terms...

Alright boys and girls, today, "耽美" Im sure you all are resourceful enough find out the usage and meaning by yourselves. ^^ Impress me