Random new word of the day

[Lu]

宅官 zháiguān similar to 宅男, but this is an official who just locks him/herself up in his/her office and makes it very difficult to impossible for the people s/he is supposed to administer for to actually see him/her. When I saw the word I thought it was some kind of apartment complex official, but when I looked it up this explanation made total sense.

[Murray]

创伤后压力紊乱 chuāngshānghòuyālìwěnluàn

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

[roddy]

体无完肤, tǐwúwánfū - the literal meaning is... well, literal. Can also be used figuratively to describe a comprehensive refutation.

[Murray]

狂犬病 kuángquǎnbìng

Rabies

[skylee]

This was recently used by a politician in his comments about the current HK Government -

塔斯佗陷阱 (or 塔西佗陷阱) - Tacitus trap ("Tacitus Trap" warns any leaders in power that when a government loses credibility, whether it tells the truth or a lie, to do good or bad, will be considered a lie, or to do bad. From China Daily)

In short, 塔斯佗陷阱 = 無信不立

Further reading - http://biglychee.com...-who-quote-him/

http://hk.apple.next...130801/18358916

[skylee]

熊貓機 - mobile phones whose front is black but whose back is white (or in colours other than black). The new iPhone 5C is a 熊貓機。

[renzhe]

袋熊 = Wombat

I was not as lucky finding a Croatian translation, though it appears that "vombat" is in use.

Also, 沙袋鼠 is Cantonese for Wallaby, no idea if it's standard in Mandarin too.

[imron]

What about Platypus?

[renzhe]

didn't see one, so I don't care ppbpbbbpbpbpbpbpt

[Michaelyus]

I was wondering whether Tacitus actually said anything like that... interesting appropriation of the Roman rhetorical tradition!

颱風天兔 - Typhoon Usagi

I never really noticed the word order of this previously, but it strikes me that the typhoon naming convention is rather distinctive to usual descriptive nomenclature in Chinese.

[Demonic_Duck]

鸡尾酒 - cocktail

原子 - atom

[skylee]

大體老師 or 大體 - cadavers used in the study of anatomy. Another term is 無言老師 (silent mentor).

 

PS - I think, more accurately, 大體 refers to the cadavers. 大體老師 and 無言老師 refer to the people who donated their bodies.

[roddy]

Randomly seen while looking something else up - 江鸡 jiāngjī - obviously it's easy to figure out the meaning of Chinese words from the component characters, and here we have river-chicken. So clearly it'll be some kind of waterfowl, probably something edible. A species of duck maybe. 

 

Oh wait, it's a dragon-fly. 

[Demonic_Duck]

Speaking of insects with fun names, those little grey beetles that you see all over the place in some parts are apparently called 臭大姐.

[陳德聰]

What group uses 江鸡 to refer to 蜻蜓?

[Demonic_Duck]

Going by baidu image search it's a specific subspecies (as there are photos marked 江鸡蜻蜓).

[tooironic]

Reminds me of Chinese edible frog being referred to as "field chicken" (田鸡).

[heifeng]

Semi new word 杀青, except for Roddy's old post here (of course) 

Although I'm happy to report my Pleco dictionary gave me the meaning I needed.

 

Source: 陈小春 interview...and he wasn't talking about tea making...more like wrapping up filming

[skylee]

Indeed it is usually used to refer to completion of filming.

[Lu]

 

Reminds me of Chinese edible frog being referred to as "field chicken" (田鸡).

In Dutch, if you want to sound musk rats more appealing you call them water rabbit (waterkonijn). And apparently then you can put them on the menu.

 

My word: 厌氧氨氧化菌 anammex bacteria. I'm going to interpret at a water treatment plant (污水处理站) next week. I sincerely hope there will be few questions after the presentation, I barely understand this stuff in Dutch.