skylee Posted December 7, 2011 at 11:49 PM Report Posted December 7, 2011 at 11:49 PM 頭耷耷 In Cantonese it is pronounced tau dap dap -> http://win2003.chi.cuhk.edu.hk/hanyu/chetio.asp?chetio=20057 Quote
roddy Posted December 7, 2011 at 11:57 PM Author Report Posted December 7, 2011 at 11:57 PM Reminds me of 肥头大耳. Quote
heifeng Posted December 8, 2011 at 12:42 AM Report Posted December 8, 2011 at 12:42 AM 耷拉！this is a repeat!!!! check out #236 wahaha 1 Quote
roddy Posted December 8, 2011 at 11:43 AM Author Report Posted December 8, 2011 at 11:43 AM Damn you, Heifeng!!!!! shakes fist Quote
roddy Posted December 28, 2011 at 01:19 PM Author Report Posted December 28, 2011 at 01:19 PM 国葬, guózàng - state funeral. Quote
Meng Lelan Posted December 28, 2011 at 03:47 PM Report Posted December 28, 2011 at 03:47 PM I guess you've been reading about the funeral in North Korea. Quote
jbradfor Posted January 7, 2012 at 08:40 PM Report Posted January 7, 2012 at 08:40 PM 摩門 -- Mormon. This is pretty clever, as the sound (Mo2men2) is very close to the sound in English, and the meaning (knock / rub a door) is very close to what they do and often annoy me. Quote
Murray Posted January 10, 2012 at 06:02 AM Report Posted January 10, 2012 at 06:02 AM After recently re-watching Blade Runner, I became curious as to what the word for "android" was in Chinese. I asked a Wuhanese friend who said it was simply 机器人 (robot). While androids are robots, the term specifies a type of robot made intentionally to look human in contrast to your standard mechanical robot which no one would mistake for human. I'm not sure if 机器人 would be able to convey this idea accurately, but I couldn't find a better term. Quote
xiaocai Posted January 10, 2012 at 10:20 AM Report Posted January 10, 2012 at 10:20 AM How about a search on Wikipedia? Quote
heifeng Posted January 11, 2012 at 05:01 PM Report Posted January 11, 2012 at 05:01 PM 自戕 zi4qiang1: Suicide Found here: 俄州男槍殺3親人後自戕 Explanation/examples of usage here Quote
David Wong Posted January 12, 2012 at 07:08 PM Report Posted January 12, 2012 at 07:08 PM 剖析 pou1xi1. analyse; dissect. I love discovering characters with unique pronunciations. No other Chinese character sounds like pou1. I'm gonna call them monophones. Quote
David Wong Posted January 12, 2012 at 07:28 PM Report Posted January 12, 2012 at 07:28 PM 咯or 囖 Another monophone? lo - particle used at the end of a sentence to indicate obviousness. I think of it as 呗's southern cousin. 呗 is a quasi-monophone. It's only ever uttered as 轻声. The only other 轻声 "bei" sound I know of is 臂as in 胳臂 (arm). Is there a special term for characters that are only ever uttered as 轻声, as distinct from characters that take on the neutral tone only in combination with other characters? Quote
heifeng Posted February 7, 2012 at 04:00 AM Report Posted February 7, 2012 at 04:00 AM Skylee's post here reminded me of this other gem, whose Chinese name I learned not too far back: 石榴石。。。garnet! ( Chinese palidrome if you will...How perfectly symmetric. Perfect...just like those who have it as a birthstone...I kid, I kid) Quote
heifeng Posted February 7, 2012 at 04:59 AM Report Posted February 7, 2012 at 04:59 AM 滥觞 lànshāng lit. floating wine goblets on a stream / the origin (of some phenomenon) Found here : 扎紧口袋能否遏制缓刑滥觞？ more on just the character 觞 here Quote
heifeng Posted February 9, 2012 at 03:10 AM Report Posted February 9, 2012 at 03:10 AM 啻 ｃｈì 【副】 (形声。从口,帝声。本义:仅仅,只有)同本义〖only〗。——常用在表示疑问或否定的字后,组成“不啻”,“匪啻”,“奚啻”等词,在句中起连接或比况作用。如:不啻如此 不啻 bùchì just as / no less than / like (sth momentous) / as good as / tantamount to / 1.不只，不止.例：不啻如此.2.不异于：不啻兄弟. This word and character was stumbled upon in this article: 《两岸常用词典》完成 携手建设，为两岸为世界做贡献 在中华民族刚刚欢度了上元的时刻，两岸合作编纂中华语文工具书成果发布、“中华语文知识库”网站开通，不啻为两岸语文学界献给中华民族乃至全世界的迎春礼物。 ~~~And, lastly, we might as well throw a related chengyu into the mix: 不啻天渊 拼音： bù chì tiān yuān 近义词： 天壤之别 解释： 不啻：无异于。渊：深潭。无异于从云天之上到深潭之底。比喻差别极大。 出处： 清·李渔《闲情偶寄·宾白第四》：“吴有吴音，越有越语，相去不啻天渊。” 例子： 比那辛亥革命，直～远隔呢。（蔡东藩、许廑父《民国通俗演义》第二十八回） Quote
heifeng Posted February 19, 2012 at 08:18 AM Report Posted February 19, 2012 at 08:18 AM 人为刀俎，我为鱼肉 【拼音】：rén wéi dāo zǔ，wǒ wéi yú ròu 【釋義】：刀俎：刀和刀砧板，宰割的工具。比喻生殺的權掌握在別人手裏，自己處在被宰割的地位。 【出處】：《史記·項羽本紀》：“如今人方為刀俎，我為魚肉。” Came across in this article: 超市成“贵市”，监管不能无动于衷 This sentence: 收到预付款的超市，实际上已经实现销售，而当商业预付卡以福利或者其他灰色交易的方式来到实际消费者的手中时，超市已经是“刀俎”，消费者也不再是“上帝”，而是“鱼肉”，即使东西卖得再贵也不怕没有生意。 Quote
skylee Posted February 19, 2012 at 08:38 AM Report Posted February 19, 2012 at 08:38 AM Similar sayings - 肉在砧板上, 砧板上的肉. PS - We should really study 史記 more. It is such a major source of chengyu and stories. 1 Quote
Peter2010 Posted March 1, 2012 at 06:07 AM Report Posted March 1, 2012 at 06:07 AM 泡汤 pao4 tang1 come to nothing, in vain Quote
jbradfor Posted March 7, 2012 at 05:03 PM Report Posted March 7, 2012 at 05:03 PM [Doing my bit to put the "Random" into "Random new word of the day"!] 海綿寶寶 See if you can guess before looking SpongeBob SquarePants (US TV animated series, 1999-) Quote
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