Random new word of the day

[Don_Horhe]

突然死亡法 = sudden death, as in sports

[彭浩轩]

双氧水 -- Hydrogen Peroxide

I had an ear infection (耳朵感染 ... second random word ) a couple weeks ago, and had to look this one up to run around asking pharmacists if they stock it. Curiously enough, I could not find a single pharmacy in Shanghai that stocks 双氧水。

[anonymoose]

You should have gone to a hair salon. I'm sure they have it.

[jbradfor]

Or ask scoobyqueen; I hear she's very blonde. :o

[cherrybomb]

假jiă,装模作样zhuāng mú zuò yàng,actually this is "two words" but both can be used as making some revolting affectations in the way one acts or speaks. I actually saw this in some people and even in some Chinese English learners.

[skylee]

I saw this word, which was completely new to me, when flipping through my dictionary -

丳 (chan3) - skewer 烤肉時用來串肉的竹籤 --- so you use a 丳 to make a 串 of roast mutton. yummy.

[Lu]

火柴 huo3chai2 match

Now how did I make it through ten years of learning Chinese and over three years living in greater China without ever learning the word 'match'? I had to mime it to the guy in the shop just now. (And then he didn't have them, so I ended up buying a 打火机 anyway.)

[heifeng]

So I wasn't going to add this expression before, but now I have seen it enough times while reading the news that I figure it should at least be added to this random list:

霸王硬上弓: ba4wang2ying4shang4gong1: http://baike.baidu.com/view/206.htm which basically refers to rape

I came across the term in this article today

火柴 huo3chai2 match

Now how did I make it through ten years of learning Chinese and over three years living in greater China without ever learning the word 'match'? I had to mime it to the guy in the shop just now. (And then he didn't have them, so I ended up buying a 打火机 anyway.)

Also, Lu, Here's a song for you：火柴天堂

[crazy-meiguoren]

That cop was definitely 一个生病的小狗!

[skylee]

婚禮統籌師 - wedding planner

[skylee]

量化寬鬆 = quantitative easing (QE)

[Don_Horhe]

拜占庭帝国 - Byzantine Empire

[roddy]

扽, dèn, yank, shake

扥, dèn, shake, vibrate

Found where all the best odd characters come from - typing mistakes. Was trying to type 的呢 in Google Pinyin . . .

[Glenn]

That's kind of how I found 慫慂 (albeit in Japanese. I hadn't bothered checking Chinese usage yet... ^^;;).

[imron]

坚壁清野 - Strengthen defence works, evacuate non-combatants, hide provisions and livestock, and clear away all surrounding trees and cabins.

Back when I was first learning Chinese, we had a long-standing game to see who could find the most obscure/bizarre chengyu in the dictionary (the little red pocket oxford english-chinese, chinese-english dictionary to be precise) and one of my friends found this one. We found it quite amusing that this single word could contain so much oddly specific meaning when translated into English.

Today, some 9-10 years later, I came across this word in the book I was reading, which just goes to show, no matter how random and pointless you think a word might be, if you learn it, it will eventually come in useful

Edited November 25, 2010 at 02:11 AM by imron
changed translation to match dictionary entry

[James Johnston]

维基解密 - wikileaks

[Glenn]

How topical and relevant.

[jbradfor]

都市玉男 -- metrosexual.

As least I assume those are the characters, I was only going by the pinyin.

From this article http://www.bloomberg...eal-creams.html , talking about the rise of men in China using creams and other treatments. [Full disclosure: I use 3-4 different types of creams per day too..... Especially when the weather is cold, it was -10 F when we left the house this morning!]

[aristotle1990]

On a related note, how about 伪娘 (warning: NSFW)?

[renzhe]

This one is priceless.

菠菜 = bōcài = spinach

It is also the Chinese slang for policemen in Germany (who actually wear green uniforms).

Bocai = Polizei