Random new word of the day

[skylee]

夯 (hang1) = very popular

夯劇 = hit drama

[skylee]

無/沒朋友 as in [adj]到無/沒朋友 - without a peer, unrivalled.

 

Examples - [醜/ 帥 / 酷 / 自負 / 自大 / 快 / 貴 / 假 / 胖 / 懶 / 爽]到無/沒朋友

[renzhe]

Oldie but goodie:

蛋挞 = pastel de nata (originally pastel de Belém), a traditional Portuguese pastry

The fact that there is actually a Chinese word for this can probably be traced to the popularity of the said pastry in Macao.

The interesting character is 挞, which I haven't seen used in anything else.

[skylee]

蛋撻 refers to any type of tart with an egg custard centre. The term was used even before we knew of the existence of that Belem version, which was indeed introduced from Macau. The Belem version is called 葡撻.

撻 is a character devised in HK. It obviously means tart and also can be used as a verb meaning to start an engine or turn on a light. But it is not Mandarin. (Edit - see #1488-1489 below.)

[mouse]

戆直

zhuàng zhí

 

blunt and tactless; simple and honest; 憨厚而刚直。

[renzhe]

Thanks, skylee, I wasn't even aware that there were Chinese custard tarts! I should try them some time...

The Portuguese version is called just 蛋挞 here in Portugal, so that's the only version I've heard.

[陳德聰]

Yum, grew up with 蛋挞 just assuming the "taat" pronunciation for Cantonese was a transliteration or some sort of hilarious coincidence now I want one!

[陳德聰]

I think the meaning of 挞 as "tart" was devised in HK, but I don't think this character was devised in HK... It's present in so many words WRT whips and floggings and the like...

[skylee]

Re #1488, yes you are right.

[dwq]

撻 in HK obviously means tart and also can be used as a verb meaning to start an engine or turn on a light. But it is not Mandarin. (Edit - see #1488-1489 below.)

I think that came from the sound of "start". Similarly the "starter" of a car is called 士撻.

From the sense of "ignition" comes 撻著, which comes to mean "start a relationship" also.

渡邊杏「撻着」東出昌大 劇集收視破紀錄

[Lu]

黄经 huángjīng ecliptic length. The earth has longitude and latitude, but when you look at the sky you are, in a way, also looking at the inside of a globe with its own longitude and latitude. It's more complicated than that, but that's the basic idea. See wikipedia for more information.

Oh the joys of translation, you learn something new every day. Or every three days, if the things are complicated enough. In the end I called the local Observatory to ask if the translation I had come up with made sense (it did, fortunately).

[roddy]

So I went looking for why it's 黄 and one of the links had 赤道, which it now occurs to me is red. There's also 白道, which is the track of the moon on the earth's surface (?). So does 黄 refer to the sun? Where does the 赤 in 赤道 come from? Is it just red on maps? 

[Michaelyus]

A discussion on the beauty of natural iridescence > magpie > a kind of half-baked description "像乌鸦，但是比一般乌鸦更聪明，而且这边的有白白的，会乱偷发亮金属的东西" >> scrambling to a dictionary > 喜鹊.

 

Then I found:

 

燕雀乌鹊 ~ "every Tom, Dick and Harry"

A little more poetic than 张王李赵.

 

 

 

 

 

There are more colours than just 黄 for the ecliptic and 赤 for the equator. See the 天文志 of the [前]汉书, passage 84:

 

月有九行者：黑道二，出黃道北；赤道二，出黃道南；白道二，出黃道西；青道二，出黃道東。立春、春分，月東從青道；立秋，秋分，西從白道；立冬、冬至，北從黑道；立夏、夏至，南從赤道。然用之，一決房中道。青赤出陽道，白黑出陰道。若月失節度而妄行，出陽道則旱風，出陰道則陰雨。

 

It's the five elements > five colours > five directions (including the central direction for the ecliptic) connection, with 赤 representing south. This is quite a natural inference, as the 赤道 is always in the south when viewed from the Chinese-speaking/-writing 中原.

 

I'm not sure to what the 青道 and 白道 are meant to refer to. I thought the moon's day-on-day position fluctuates around the ecliptic.

[Nathan Mao]

暨

ji4

means: and; to reach to; the limits; a surname

 

◎ 和，及，与。
◎ 到，至：～今。
◎ 姓。

[OneEye]

I think the meaning of 挞 as "tart" was devised in HK, but I don't think this character was devised in HK... It's present in so many words WRT whips and floggings and the like...

 

I saw this character recently in an article about the Belo Monte Dam in Brazil. It said that there were a lot of people who opposed the building of the dam, and 連執導3D電影《阿凡達》的好萊塢大導演卡麥隆(James Cameron)也出面撻伐。

 

撻伐 originally meant to send troops somewhere to punish people, but here it means to condemn (聲討).

 

Interestingly, in Taiwan, egg tarts are 蛋塔, not 蛋撻.

[Nathan Mao]

经不起推敲

won't/can't withstand scrutiny

[skylee]

彩蛋 - easter egg (intentional inside joke, hidden message, or feature in a work such as a computer program, movie, book, or crossword)

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_egg_(media)

This usage is quite new to me.

[Guest realmayo]

走钢丝 to walk a tightrope (lit/fig)

[MeiMay]

香蕉煎饼 = banana pancakes (I love 香蕉煎饼! 今天，我想吃香蕉煎饼，一张，两张，三张，万张 哈哈哈) i think in some places you can find them called 香蕉糕. it comes from Malay Kueh Pisang or pisang kueh which can mean a fried food similar to 香蕉煎饼. (but some people call banana jelly "pisang kueh" too) "Kueh" comes from 粿 through Min Nan. Whatever you call them and whether you fry them or deep fry them they're really delicious. I think I'll make some today...

[Nathan Mao]

铺盖

bedding/bedroll.

I think it might be used mainly for military bedrolls now, but not sure.

 

The 铺 is the padded underlay, the 盖 is the blanket.