Random new word of the day

[BigMax]

I like the word 瘸 as in 一步一瘸

 

Doesn't it just look like a beautiful and thoroughly interesting character? (even if it has a less then fortunate meaning). With the radical for things to do with illness (not sure what that one is called) as well as 加 and 肉. 

[skylee]

路姆西 - Lufsig, the name of a stuffed toy wolf sold by IKEA. It has become famous in HK because of its Chinese name and because it is a wolf.

Take a look at this BBC report if you are interested in what has happened to Lufsig.

Ikea toy wolf becomes Hong Kong protest symbol → http://m.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-25314580

PS - IKEA has just renamed the toy as 路福西.

[陳德聰]

霹靂可卡因 crack cocaine and 霹靂舞 breakdancing cracked me up today.

[roddy]

广袤, guanǧmaò - a written expression for "length and breadth of the land" with apparently 广 being east to west and 袤... ah, you figure it out. Never seen 袤 before, don't expect to see it anywhere else for a while....

 

[Demonic_Duck]

窜鼻子 (窜 pronounced cuān, some doubt as to whether it is indeed the correct character) - to experience the feeling in your nose of having just eaten too much wasabi/mustard/horseradish.

 

Take note, all you people who are inclined to write lists of "untranslateable words" to be turned into attractive .jpg images and posted to facebook walls!

[tooironic]

窜鼻子 - Hmm, "to burn the nose"? My dictionaries list it as cuàn. Could this be a variant pronunciation?

[Demonic_Duck]

Either a variant pronunciation of that character, or simply that the character, though "incorrect" on some prescriptivist concept of correctness, is the most commonly used one (other possibles which my dictionary does list as first tone are 蹿 and 撺, but they only have a fraction of the number of baidu hits when used in this phrase).

[Lu]

啫喱 (in this case 剃须啫喱) zhēlí, gel (in this case shaving gel). Took me surprisingly long to find it in a dictionary.

[anonymoose]

Inspired by this post, anyone know what the word below means?

 

搋子

 

If you got it, then congratulations - it seems even most Chinese people don't know this word.

[Demonic_Duck]

Interestingly enough, I do - I looked it up a couple of days ago myself for that very reason, and also checked it with Chinese friend, who had no idea what it was. Is this one of those cases where the most prominent in the dictionary is different from the most commonly used one, or is it simply that Chinese people are unfamiliar with the concept of plungers? O_o

One thing I do know is that a startlingly large number of Chinese people are unfamiliar with the concept of hinges, of all things. Next time you're near a) a Chinese person and b) a hinge, try asking one of the two what the other is called in their language. You're about as likely to get an answer out of the hinge as you are the Chinese person. The Chinese literature teacher at the school I work at was the only one I asked who was able to tell me the answer - it's 合叶.

[dwq]

啫喱 (in this case 剃须啫喱) zhēlí, gel (in this case shaving gel).

 

Note that this word is the transliteration of Jelly.  Using it for Gel came later.

 

[tooironic]

@anonymoose I know that one, it's "plunger". But I only know it because it came up in interpreting training. It's also known as 皮搋子. Most educated native speakers will know it. Canto speakers should know it by its Canto name (you can find it on the Chinese Wikipedia).

[renzhe]

I apologise if this is too obvious, but have we had 非死不可?

[jbradfor]

[Everyone rushes to the search field in a rare opportunity to prove renzhe wrong. DOH!  Not this time it seems.]

 

No, we haven't, at least not in this thread.  Although we have had a thread about it: http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/topic/30345-%E9%9D%9E%E6%AD%BB%E4%B8%8D%E5%8F%AF-facebook/

 

Obligatory RNWotD: 艋舺 .  Was doing random wikipedia-ing and was reading about the Wanhua (萬華) District in Taiwan.  This was the pre-Japanese name.

 

Interesting to me as I didn't recall seeing either character before, and looking at MDBG, both characters don't show up in any words, so I'm guessing I can probably safely not learn them.  [Although it is the name of a movie.]

[Demonic_Duck]

Going back to the infinitely fascinating subject of plungers, I just went and bought one. The label in the supermarket said "揣子" (first character is pronounced "chuāi", as is 搋). I asked my housemate how to say it in Chinese. She wasn't exactly sure, and just told me people always simply call it "吸马桶的".

[Lu]

One thing I do know is that a startlingly large number of Chinese people are unfamiliar with the concept of hinges, of all things. Next time you're near a) a Chinese person and b) a hinge, try asking one of the two what the other is called in their language. You're about as likely to get an answer out of the hinge as you are the Chinese person. The Chinese literature teacher at the school I work at was the only one I asked who was able to tell me the answer - it's 合叶.

Nciku and Iciba think it's 合页 (or 铰链), google image is fine with both spellings. Either way, your description of the test is hilarious.

Also I suddenly realise that 'leaf' in English is both the thing in the book and the thing on the tree, as is 'blad' in Dutch. And in Chinese it sounds the same but is written differently. Surely this means something, but I'm not sure what...

[roddy]

"吸马桶的" is brilliant. I think we should aim to get  "toilet-sucker" into the OED. 

[Michaelyus]

I've always heard 枢纽 for (principally door) hinges: does that make the concept more or less nebulous? (Since 枢纽 is the main word for a transportation hub). After all, a hinge can refer to many different items and concepts, right?

 

I think we have another entry for "same thing, many names".

[skylee]

I say 門鉸. I don't know any other terms for door hinges.
 
PS - I have just come across the Yale (lock brand) website.  And it is interesting to note that the same thing is called "door hinges" on the English website, "合页" on the Simplified Chinese website and "門鉸" on the Traditional Chinese (.hk) website.

http://www.yaleasia.com/en/yale/yale-asia/yale-lock-products/?groupId=4523
http://www.yalelock.com.cn/zh-cn/yale/yale-china/yale-locks/?groupId=4523
http://www.yale.com.hk/zh-hk/yale/yale-hk/11/?groupId=397

[Demonic_Duck]

I think we have another entry for "same thing, many names".

 

Well, that and plunger (搋子、揣子、皮搋子、吸马桶的, and my dictionary also lists 马桶拔).

 

Also I suddenly realise that 'leaf' in English is both the thing in the book and the thing on the tree, as is 'blad' in Dutch. And in Chinese it sounds the same but is written differently. Surely this means something, but I'm not sure what...

I believe the written forms are at least somewhat interchangeable in Chinese, as seen from 合叶/合页 (my dictionary includes both). I'm pretty sure there are other examples of this, too, but I can't call any to mind right now.

 

I feel like this has to be more than random chance... then again, it seems like 燕 and 咽 (yàn and yàn, "swallow" (n.) and "swallow" (v.) respectively) are just a coincidence, so I guess 叶 and 页 could be as well...

 

Man, all this geeky stuff is what I love most about studying Chinese.