Random new word of the day

[heifeng]

lets backtrack to post #611

消音器 - silencer, I was watching a low-budget Lorenzo Lamas action movie on Chinese cable the other day.

basically I found this word for silencer recently in my reading: 灭声器mie4sheng1qi4 , so I took my search to google, and here's what I found:

basically for 消音器 it seems like this also turns up mufflers, where as 灭声器 actually turns up silencers and this. Just thought I would point this out if anyone is going to go shopping for silencers, mufflers, or barkstop collar devices one day...

(As an aside: I'm just gonna begin killing that apostrophe in ya'll (or y'all)~just typing yall will save me a whole keystroke! score!!!)

Edited July 23, 2009 at 03:21 AM by heifeng

[trien27]

倾诉 qing1 su4

倾 qing1 would not be an original Mandarin word. Seems to be borrowed from Cantonese, where 倾 means "to chat/talk", like in private. 诉 = "to tell". 倾诉 = to tell someone your story of some kind in a private / intimate kind of way, I'd guess.

金砖四国， jīnzhuānsìguó. From the paper this morning, quite a cute one I thought. See if you can guess before checking the answer if you don't know it already.

Anything with a chance to become "the best" would be described as "金"

Translated BRIC* as 砖 because "BRIC" looks and sounds like "brick" in English, which is literally translated as 砖 in Chinese. 四国 = names of the four countries with fast growing economies, where each initial letter is taken from their names in English : Brazil, Russia, India & China .

*BRIC = Brazil, Russia, India & China.

skylee's quote:

I've invested quite some money (and am still losing) in 金磚四國 ....

Uh oh... better change it to 銀磚四國 then.

I was about to invest there too. At least I've thought about it. Haven't decided yet.

You mean to tell me this fast growing economy thing is only a hype?

Edited July 24, 2009 at 07:49 PM by roddy

[roddy]

脑袋搬家， nǎodaibānjiā. To die.

[heifeng]

ooh, that IS a fun one. Almost seems like it could be used as an insult too...I wonder...

[roddy]

孑孓 jiéjué - larva, something wriggly. Couldn't you just write that all day long . . .

[Lu]

仙人球 xian1ren2qiu2 immortal's ball? The game played in heaven for the amusement of the Jade Emperor? No, simply a cactus.

[anonymoose]

There's also 仙人掌 meaning cactus, of a different shape perhaps?

[imron]

Yep. There was a street hawker who used to sell these at the bottom of the building where I worked in Beijing. The 仙人球 are the small round ones without any protrusions.仙人掌 are the ones that have "fingers" sticking out.

[skylee]

華麗麗 - more 華麗 than 華麗, very spectucular/grandiose/splendid/magnificent.

I find this description very cute. It can be applied to almost everything.

華麗麗是一個那麼華麗麗的詞，能華麗麗地使一切都變得更華麗麗。

[roddy]

老妪, lǎoyù, written term for an old woman

娃娃兵, wáwabīng, child soldier.

Both from the news.

[muyongshi]

A word from Business Chinese:

What do you mean? 离谱 is not limited to being used in a business sense by any means, and in fact is most often used not in that context and I don't think you mean that it is only a business word.... Is Business Chinese a book or something?

[roddy]

See also (不)靠谱。

I had a word, forgot it. It'll come back to me . . .

[trien27]

粕 [pò] 1. noun Dregs which are left in the process of wine-making or oil press.

Source: http://www.nciku.com/search/zh/detail/%E7%B2%95/134896

I found this character while searching for a Chinese artist's songs. Turns out she was in one of the cosmetic products' commercials from Japan, where the translated name of "Rice Beauty" in Chinese = 米粕美人, where 米粕 might be a Japanese usage, where 米 = rice in Chinese.

Wondered why the Japanese use 米粕 to mean "Rice" in "Rice Beauty" here?

Edited August 9, 2009 at 09:35 PM by trien27
additional information

[trien27]

曲谱 opera music score, the meaning to do with music

曲谱 = sheet music [in book form] for any type of music [opera, piano, orchestra, etc...],

or

blank sheet music [this is before any music is written]

or

staff music [that's after the music has been written]

Translation depends on the situation.

Edited August 9, 2009 at 09:49 PM by trien27

[studentyoung]

I found this character while searching for a Chinese artist's songs. Turns out she was in one of the cosmetic products' commercials from Japan, where the translated name of "Rice Beauty" in Chinese = 米粕美人, where 米粕 might be a Japanese usage, where 米 = rice in Chinese.

Wondered why the Japanese use 米粕 to mean "Rice" in "Rice Beauty" here?

歌手许茹芸用情歌征服情人，成为美丽和爱情的代言人，也因为这样的形象，被厂商向中代言日本的米粕保养品。

打破来自日本六甲山间的泉水，这就是业者号称无污染的山泉水，这水不但提供酒商制作日本第一的清酒，还从米发酵液中研发出保养品，产品在日本已经有两百多年历史，准备引进台湾。想要跟日本女性的肌肤一样好，许茹芸最近是勤用米粕产品，希望也可以成为米粕美人。

http://cache.baidu.com/c?m=9d78d513d9d430ae4f9b91690c66c0171d43f1682bd6a0020ed5843991732a4b501793af60624e0b89833a2516ae3a41f7b66d25675037b7ec98db118bfc852858d97a6b6d489140668a51b8ca3026c125925eeaad13e5&p=c47ed616d9c216b918bd9b7b4c&user=baidu

It seems that one of the ingredients in the cosmetic products “Rice Beauty” is liquid of rice fermentation, which is made by spring water in Rokko Hill in Kobe, Japan. It’s said that the enzymes in this rice fermentation can help women’s skin smooth.

Cheers!

[heifeng]

羊角辫 yang2jiao3bian4= pigtails, but usually of the towards the top of your head, spiky variety..

spotted this word in this article

but here are more photos

[imron]

Not to be confused with 羊鞭. Probably best not to link to pictures for that one

[heifeng]

hahaha...yeah definitely make sure the 角 gets added in there:mrgreen:

[heifeng]

Ok, I discovered a random word today...well more like I discovered the random pronunciation of a word today. The funny thing is, I actually use this word in such a context in speaking, just never realized what character it is~until now heh. Any takers on the character to complete this 'fill in the pinyin' sentence?

yao1 一斤肉

yao1 一 yao1 有多重

-

yes?

-

no?

-

Maybe?

-----

Answer=约

Definition:用秤称

-----

Now I feel like a big dork for not knowing this earlier...although I've never had to actually write this character in the above context. On the other hand this somehow made me a little bit too happy to figure this out today! oh well, another word crossed off on my list of words I say/hear but do not know what the character actually is....

[roddy]

Didn't get it, although when I saw the answer I had vague recollections. Probably kidding myself.

战壕 - zhànháo, trench, as in trench warfare and trenchmouth (战壕口炎, I'd only ever heard of trenchfoot before and am slightly distressed that the dictionary brought trenchmouth to my attention).