Random new word of the day

[imron]

Slanty eyes = almond-shaped eyes?

But with completely different connotations. I think almond-shaped eyes would have been an acceptable translation and IMO is a nice descriptive way of saying how those eyes look.

[isela]

If you are interested in seeing how 丹凤眼 looks like, you can google 关羽 and 林黛玉's imaginative pictures online. These two persons are described to have such eyes.

[HashiriKata]

If you are interested in seeing how 丹凤眼 looks like, you can google 关羽

Here's him, as used to illustrate 丹凤眼 in Wiktionary:

[Scoobyqueen]

Isnt there a similar description for eyes that are shaped like pumpkin or melon seeds? I think I once heard the girls in our Chinese office discussing someone from Germany they thought was handsome because of those "shaped" eyes. I obviously cant post his picture:wink:

[leeyah]

Interesting topic, really...

eyes that are shaped like pumpkin or melon seed

Probably 杏眼 xing4yan3 = apricot (seed?) eyes

Here's more 眼形 (wa! there are also 荔枝眼 leechee eyes!!)

[Lu]

Leeyah, thanks for that link! There's probably also a word for the shape of eyes I really like, but I have to read a bit closer to figure that out. Meanwhile, the more of those words I throw into google images, the more I don't see any difference between all those eye shapes. Ah well.

(Random word will follow later, so as to not go too far off-topic.)

[leeyah]

Lu, believe it or not, there seems to be no end to Chinese poetic words for eyes! I like the connotation of taohua so I just happened to find:

桃花眼 >>>(眼长,眼尾略弯,眼睛水汪汪似的,四周略带红晕,眼形似若桃花,睫毛长,眼尾稍向上翘) deep, large, long-lashed eyes of Taiwanese star Angela Zhang (张韶涵) or the masculine variant (with thick eyebrows) of Wang Lee Hom or Tony Leung Chiu Wai. By the way, Shanghainese star 刘亦菲 is said to have typical female 丹凤眼, which are also (less poetically) called 斗鸡眼

I also remember reading about Jay Chou's

蒙猪眼 >>>(mongolian piggy eyes) 细小的眼睛 (I wouldn't call his eyes that, but anyway)

the more of those words I throw into google images, the more I don't see any difference between all those eye shapes. Ah well.

Maybe you're right, but I think the difference between 桃花眼 & 丹凤眼 is clearly visible, especially when you compare 张韶涵 & 刘亦菲, or 王喜 vs 胡歌 or even Jet Li... Edited July 11, 2009 at 08:50 PM by leeyah

[Lu]

And here I thought I was so knowledgeable for knowing the difference between 单眼皮 and 双眼皮 :-)

Btw, I'm obviously anything but an expert, but I'm quite sure 斗鸡眼 doesn't refer to shape, but means cross-eyed. I'm so sure because I asked on the forums a while ago :-) Or is there a different meaning too?

[leeyah]

You're right, 斗鸡眼 is cross-eyed, also called 对眼, but I'm sure there are plenty of people with a combination of 丹凤眼 & 斗鸡眼, too.

It just sounds better to use the 丹凤 instead of (poor, little) 斗鸡 & I've heard of 龙马眼睛, too. Not sure what shape it refers to exactly.

[trien27]

梦魔

梦魇

These are easy to be confused by. Due to the similar writing in Simplified Chinese.

It's somewhat clear as to the composition of the character when written in Traditional Chinese.

夢魔

夢魘

I've heard a song and the pronunciation for 魘 & 靨 are confused. On websites, you will be told that 靨 is pronounced "yan" but it's wrong: 靨 = ye4, not "yan2".

Edited July 12, 2009 at 05:56 PM by trien27
additional information

[trien27]

here's a character which really tells you how a Chinese character is made:

爨, cuan4, = two hands, which looks similar to 臼 holding a cauldron where the character doesn't exist in Modern Chinese and so I can't find it online, and putting it on a stove 冖 then you have 林 standing for the pieces of firewood, then another hand tending over the firewood transformed into 大 over time with a 火 for the cooking fire on the very bottom. But it's hard to see the character here.

The meaning of 爨 = cooking stove.

After enlarging from the link below 爨 = Towards the top of the page about halfway on the right side, the top character is how the character is written in Ancient Chinese.

http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0688.gif

Here's a more clearer picture of 爨 on the left side of the page below:

http://www.chinese-tools.com/tools/sinograms.html?q=%E7%88%A8, which is somewhat wrong, because the middle part on top should be the same as at the above site http://www.kangxizidian.com/kangxi/0688.gif, not the same as 同 which is the middle part on top of 興, which is the traditional from of 兴.

爨 was a surname in Yunnan China. I tried to go to a site but the website is too messy. You could read more here, this page is clearer. I'm sorry it's on Chinese history but I linked to it to show that 爨 was used as a surname by someone called 爨琛, Cuan Chen, of possible Tibetan origins in China in the 320's. http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Yunnan

Edited July 23, 2009 at 03:02 AM by trien27
additional information

[Lu]

高屋建瓴 gao1wu1 jian4ling2 'operate from a strategic commanding height; sweep down irresistably from a commanding height'

About a director who can speak like that. He must sound like Obama.

[roddy]

智囊, zhìnáng, someone who's very knowledgeable, etc. Or a knowbags, which is a new word I've been inspired to create.

[heifeng]

桂冠 guì guān laurel / victory garland (in Greek and western culture) and now refers to winners of contests

as it was used in this article today:

2009莫斯科小姐出炉

7月15日，尤利娅·奥布拉兹佐娃在俄罗斯首都莫斯科举行的“2009莫斯科小姐”选美比赛上夺得桂冠。

[skylee]

桂冠 is a direct translation of laurels.

[renzhe]

海盗 - pirate

And this one is very interesting:

打工妹 - young (usually migrant) female worker in big factories in China.

Edited July 16, 2009 at 08:37 PM by renzhe

[heifeng]

here's a random one that i spent forever trying to find in my dictionary ..until I finally had stand all the way up, walk over to the computer, to take my search to the internet.

飨 xiǎng: entertain sb w/ food and drink, invite sb to enjoy sth.

such as: 以飨读者： cater to the readers. [edit: typo fixed...this come up in later [pst:) ]

apparently others have had the same question:

"乡食" 这个字念什么？

Edited July 19, 2009 at 01:21 PM by heifeng
i really need to cut my nails...completely hitting all the wrong keys when typing these days...

[imron]

You need a better dictionary 现代汉语词典 has it.

[renzhe]

死定了

I can't find it in a dictionary, but it's something like "Oh no! I'm in trouble!" One translation I found was "dead meat".

..right?

Another useful one: 影射 - to allude to (someone)

Edited July 18, 2009 at 12:17 AM by renzhe

[heifeng]

Actually once i found the pinyin, I was good to go & it was indeed in my dictionary, for some reason (I'll put money on that I was looking it up incorrectly via radical) I couldn't find it w/o in there though, so I gave up page turning and turned to google instead...

Edited July 18, 2009 at 03:10 AM by heifeng
oops can't blame the talons when I leave out pronouns though