Random new word of the day

[muyongshi]

and to lurk:

used in the online communities. Such as forums. Not to lurk around someone's door...

[Daan]

Can be used for risks too, as in 潛在風險 'lurking dangers'.

Here's one that took me a while to figure out: 祗 Qí '[name of a goddess]' which didn't make any sense in the given context. After checking quite a few dictionaries, it turned out this character can also be pronounced as zhǐ with the same meaning as 只. This is an uncommon usage here in Taiwan, might be different on the mainland.

Edited October 26, 2009 at 02:44 PM by Daan

[skylee]

I think it is 祗, not 祈. But maybe I've got it wrong.

[Daan]

No, you're absolutely right! Sorry, corrected that in the post above. What was I thinking?

[heifeng]

adding to our '潜' streak:

潜规则 :qiánguīzé open secret or unspoken/unwritten rule (in a bad way, of course..)

Came across it in this article “90后贱女孩”归根是“潜规则”的牺牲品

Edited October 27, 2009 at 04:05 AM by heifeng

[roddy]

杯葛, bēigé, to boycott. Never heard that before, was in an interview with a Taiwanese politician.

[numble]

同命不同价 tong2 ming4 bu4 tong2 jia4

Same life, different value (different price)

Refers to the phenomenon where urban hukou holders receive much more compensation for death or injuries in the courts compared to rural hukou holders.

http://www.hudong.com/wiki/同命不同价

[numble]

保鮮膜 保鲜膜 bao3 xian1 mo2

plastic wrap, preservative film, cling film

[calibre2001]

幸災樂禍 - to rejoice over unfortunate events concerning others

cool phrase!

[renzhe]

The correct translation is "Schadenfreude"

[trien27]

鞠躬 - to bow ( what is this doing in a wedding card??)

This might be a misinterpretation or something. Usually at a Chinese wedding, the bride & groom will kneel down on their knees or on cushions to each of their parents one by one if their parents don't have elder siblings by offering each parent a cup of tea. But if their parents have siblings, the parents' siblings in order of birth goes on and on. Then the couple's elder siblings would go next until no one is older than the wedding couple.

[trien27]

杯葛, bēigé, to boycott

It's actually from "bui gort" which is the approximate Cantonese rendering of the English word "boycott", which is from Charles Boycott in Ireland who refused to lower the rent, and so the tenants protested in such a way that today his name got such a bad rap.

I would put the pinyin as "bēi gé" as to not confuse it with the English color "beige".

"bēigé" is the pronunciation of both Chinese words in Mandarin, but it's not the same in other Chinese dialects.

杯 = cup; glass; mug, etc... depending on what's used.

葛 = yucca, etc...

[trien27]

幸災樂禍 - to rejoice over unfortunate events concerning others

The correct translation is "Schadenfreude"

So, 幸災樂禍 = "Schadenfreude"

Cool. The Chinese & Germans have something in common: they used the same terms, just in different languages.

[trien27]

寻短见 xúnduǎnjiàn commit suicide

You're missing something here: sui = "oneself" in Latin, therefore the Chinese also put "oneself" into translating "suicide", so it should be 自寻短见, not just 寻短见.

Edited October 31, 2009 at 04:26 AM by trien27
grammar error

[zhwj]

Both variants are possible. 自寻短见, 寻短见. Contrary to popular belief, Chinese vocabulary has its own logic and is not merely a list of translations from Latin.

And according to news searches, it looks like 寻短见 is more common in the press.

[animal world]

三聚氰胺 = melamine (sān jù qíng àn).

In case you're interested, melamine is C3H6N6 but i doubt you'll see it shown on food labels

[numble]

掏腰包 掏腰包 tao1 yao1 bao1

to pay, to foot the bill

[abcdefg]

百度工具栏 = Baidu Toolbar

It’s very easy to wind up with an unwanted one of these when downloading Chinese software. I got it plus a blazing new Maxathon Browser that wanted to take over my life recently while installing PPLive.

[imron]

防晒油 - sunscreen

[Daan]

東山再起 - to return to office after living as a hermit on Mount Dongshan -> to stage a comeback