Random new word of the day

[Nathan Mao]

卖弄

to show off

[skylee]

Re 鋪蓋 at #1500, also learn the expression 捲鋪蓋.

http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=1&wdqb=%E6%8D%B2%E9%8B%AA%E8%93%8B

[Nathan Mao]

"Get your crap together and get it out of here, and you with it!"

[Demonic_Duck]

旗袍 - cheongsam. I was berated for knowing neither the English nor the Chinese term for this today. I guess I'm a Philistine.

[skylee]

Re #1504, it is also called 長衫 (which is where "cheongsam" came from).

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E9%95%B7%E8%A1%AB

[Demonic_Duck]

Yup, noticed that when searching Wiki. zh.wiki 长衫 redirects to 旗袍.

[ouyangjun]

not a word, but a saying.  My wife accused me of this skill set this morning while I was avoiding doing the dishes (at least i view it as a skill set).

 

把白的说成黑的，把黑的说成白的

 

First time I'd heard that saying.  I think it's a useful one.

[skylee]

Re #1507, also learn a similar chengyu 指鹿為馬

http://www.mdbg.net/chindict/chindict.php?page=worddict&wdrst=1&wdqb=%E6%8C%87%E9%B9%BF%E7%82%BA%E9%A6%AC

[Demonic_Duck]

把白的说成黑的，把黑的说成白的

Reminds me of a few lines in 赵本山's famous 《卖拐》 sketch.

 

我能把正的忽悠邪了

能把蔫的忽悠乜了

能把奸人忽悠乜了

能把小两口过得挺好

我给他忽悠分别了

今天卖拐

一双好腿我能给他忽悠瘸了

 

Actually I have no idea what 乜 means in either of those contexts. It seems he pronounces it nié as well, instead of miē or niè which my dictionary lists. I guess it's 东北话? If anyone knows, that can certainly count as a "word of the day", hehe.

[ouyangjun]

Re 1509...  I've never heard 乜 before, so I'm by no means someone who can explain what it means.  But the below is a link to it.  Looks like it means 什么.

 

From Baidu:

粤语方言、（湖北）随州方言，也是这个词现代最多的用法。意为：什么

偷偷摸摸不知做乜鬼?――陈残云《香飘四季》

在随州话中，乜字很常见。例:你在做乜嘢？（意为:你在做什么？）

乜嘢(什么事)

 

http://baike.baidu.com/link?url=_tvt8mpahI-Pbeu_Tp_eV_q8WSo3_n19Gksxq73PkcGK9zmoe0aKa7JhEOtGfnYAPpT9i22PgfaVD7__gK0bE_cnGtYrQ8trzO7uFlgO9fQ2MlkKBwjg4-efLO2wOsSo

[MeiMay]

my dictionary also says it's 什么。apparently in Cantonese it can be 乜 (miē) or 乜嘢 (miē yě)

[陳德聰]

In Cantonese it definitely means "what", can be pronounced as "mat" or "me" using jyutping. Where did you find that?

I'm pretty sure it's being used in order to ask what the actual words for the sketch are. Especially since the first sentence has a typo...

 

我能把正的忽悠斜了

能把蔫的忽悠谑了

能把尖人忽悠嗫了

能把小两口过的挺好

我给他忽悠分别了。

今天卖拐

一双好腿我能给他忽悠瘸了!

[MeiMay]

陳德聰, are you asking me or ouyangjun? or demonic_duck? as for me, like i said, it's in my dictionary. my dictionary is a simplified+traditional dictionary that also gives Cantonese definitions if you input something that's Cantonese but I don't know if it has all Cantonese words or just some. but it's supposed to be a Mandarin dictionary. or actually I'm not sure, the title is "Chinese-English" so maybe it's Cantonese+Mandarin.

[MeiMay]

话里套话 whenever someone seems to be asking too many questions...

[skylee]

Re 乜, though this is off-topic (ah but it must be new to some people), if I see 乜, I usually pronounce it "mat". Sometimes I might pronounce it "me". My understanding, which could be wrong, is that "me" is a shortened form of "mat ye" (乜嘢). If I what to write a character that is pronounced "me", I use 咩.

PS - what I said above is about Cantonese. In Putonghua 乜 is pronounced mie1 (see attached photo).

[MeiMay]

syklee thanks for clearing that up. my dictionary is a little strange, it says:

乜

miē

• to squint

• what? (Cantonese)

• see also 乜嘢 (miē yě)

It shows the Cantonese meaning but the pth pronunciation。 there's no other pronunciation.

[Demonic_Duck]

Asked my teacher, and I think we figured it out:
 
乜 may or may not be the correct character. Pronunciation in this case is indeed nié, and it's northern (but not specifically northeastern) slang meaning slow and a bit stupid (有点傻，反应迟钝，经常发呆).
 
In this case 奸 means clever but in a petty way (小聪明).
 
As for 蔫, when applied to a flower, it means "wilting" (枯萎), when applied to a person it means a similar thing - listless, downcast (无精打采). My teacher was unable to explain exactly how that would be relevant in this context, though.
 
陈德聪: interesting alternative interpretation, I'm guessing you're basing this on the original material, which I didn't have to hand when I talked to my teacher, so I daresay yours is better. However:
 
我能把正的忽悠斜了
能把蔫的忽悠谑了
能把尖人忽悠嗫了

 

My dictionary gives 谑 as xuè or nüè, but in the sketch it's definitely either nié or nüé.

Similarly, what you have down as 嗫 (dictionary: niè) definitely sounds like nié in the sketch.

 

If your interpretation is correct, would you say the following is a correct literal English translation?

"I can hoodwink upright people into going bent,

Hoodwink depressed people into being happy,

Hoodwink people with sharp wits into being stupid"

[陳德聰]

I'm not sure what you're watching. I just searched 台词 and assumed that they were correct given they are what appears when you search 卖拐

[Demonic_Duck]

Ah, fair enough. I was going off the subtitles from here (http://v.youku.com/v_show/id_XNTU2MjY4MTQw.html), though I also found 台词 that seem to agree with my version.

[Nathan Mao]

伥

figuratively, a spirit/ghost that helps the tiger who killed him.

 

Saw it used that was in the phrase 为虎作伥。