Random new word of the day

[renzhe]

闫 yán

A family name that stumped me recently.

See 闫妮, who plays 佟湘玉 in 武林外传.

[anonymoose]

Three very useful words for the nuclear scientists among you:

piē 氕 protium

dāo 氘 deuterium

chuān 氚 tritium

[jbradfor]

Those are hilarious.

The rationale for the characters make obvious sense. But is there any rationale for their pronunciation?

[anonymoose]

丿 piě

刂 dāo

川 chuān

[jbradfor]

Oh, that's obvious too, now that you mention it...

[crazy-meiguoren]

There's a new candidate for the 2010 达尔文奖, trying to imitate a 游戏机 in real life. Click here to get the story.

What they say is true. You can't fix 笨.

[xiaocai]

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

And there is also 小白菜.

[skylee]

港漂 - rootless/drifter in HK (mainland people who study in HK / mainland people who stay to work in HK after completion of such study)

I came across this term today having read wushijiao's recent post -

One good thing about HK is that if you get an MA (or above) from a Hong Kong university, you can then get hired by local firms as if you were a local (in other words, they don't have to prove to the immigration officials that your position was so special that they couldn't have hired locally).

And here is a good feature story about 港漂 in Mingpao Weekly -> 80后 港漂

[imron]

孤独症 - autism. From this movie.

[skylee]

In Hong Kong, autism is called 自閉症.

[renzhe]

米田共 poo, manure

It describes the traditional character 糞 = 粪

[Sarevok]

I also knew the word 自闭症... I vaguely remember, that there was an advanced Chinesepod lesson with the same name...

Anyways, since we brought the topic of phobias up, I also encountered one today, in the 《杜拉拉升职记》movie...

幽闭恐惧症 claustrophobia

[roddy]

Came across Renzhe's latest here a while back.

[彭浩轩]

菠菜 = bōcài = spinach

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

Reminds me of being in Quebec with Chinese friends. In French, the natives of Quebec call themselves "Quebecois". In Chinese, my friends, rather than calling them 魁北克人, call them 魁北瓜, as in 傻瓜的瓜。 haha. Obviously to poke fun at them.

[skylee]

牛軋糖 / 鳥結糖 = nougat

[rob07]

爱抚 (ai4fu3) - to fail a student. Pun on "F".

[renzhe]

嗲 (dia3) = coquettish, flirtatious

Also 嗲声嗲气.

[roddy]

圩田 - wéitián, which I had to look up. It means polder. Which I had to look up, although I would have taken a guess at it being something that happens in Holland.

[ma3zi1]

For me it was:

穗 (sui4) = ear of grain, fringe, tassel, abbrv. for 廣州

As in 瑞穗銀行 (Mizuho Bank) in Japan

And before that:

畿 (ji1) = territory around the capital

As in 京畿道 (Gyeonggi-do) in Korea

Anyone else?

[imron]

Merged with existing thread.