Random new word of the day

[Meng Lelan]

秋千   is a swing, isn't it? The kind kids sit on a rubber strap suspended from a tree branch or metal bar. I did not know this word until today. 

[Guest realmayo]

I always forget it whenever it comes up in my flashcards, think I ended up deleting it, because the two characters doesn't suggest 'swing' to me in any way. Autumn thousand? Thousand harvests?

[Meng Lelan]

I don't know why a swing would be an autumn-thousand. 

[fanglu]

Is this not a simplification issue? The original characters were 鞦韆, which are both only used in this word, according to my dictionary. 秋千 sounded the same and uses easy characters, but has the downside of making no sense.

[Demonic_Duck]

Yup, seems to be the case. A character-by-character translation of the 繁体字 version is "swing-swing", cf. 蝴蝶 "butterfly-butterfly" and other such words (of course, this simply serves to illustrate one of many problems with character-by-character translations).

Words of the day: 正常版 and 瘦身版 - regular fit and slim-fit, respectively. As you can probably guess, I went to buy shirts today.

[Vivi MENG]

Despite of the simplification issue, there're also cultural elements I guess.

According to 百度百科（Baidu-pedia) 汉武帝时宫中盛行荡秋千；唐人高无际《汉武帝后庭秋千赋》云：“秋千者，千秋也。汉武祈千秋之寿，故后宫多秋千之乐

http://baike.baidu.com/subview/45973/7483024.htm?fr=aladdin

It says: Swing was popular in the palace of Emperor Han Wu(汉武帝）. 汉武帝 wished for a life span of 1000 years (千秋）， so the swing was named as 秋千 inside the palace.

秋 can be used as an alternative of 'year'. e.g 人生短短几个秋啊 不醉不罢休 means 'Life is too short, why not get drunk'  

[skylee]

In Hong Kong, we call it 韆鞦.

[roddy]

双关语, shuānggūanyǔ， pun or double entendre. 

[skylee]

Re #1568, also learn the expression 語帶雙關.

[tooironic]

字字珠璣 zìzìzhūjī - "each word a gem (said in praise of someone's writing)".

 

My friend used this to describe my writing (in English, unfortunately, not Chinese, hope it's the opposite one day).

[Michaelyus]

Wow, that's a pretty awesome compliment. And 玑 is a pretty awesome 字. Will prove very useful. 

 

 

 

No sarcasm there: try explaining the concept of Baroque in Chinese, especially with regard to irregularity being an aesthetic thing. Of course, whether the fact it's also used for the Swiss wristwatch brand Breguet (宝玑) will help or hinder this connection remains to be seen.

[Nathan Mao]

激将

definition: 

[peptelk;to goad sb. into action] 用反话去激人,促使人决心去做

 

Interesting that the Chinese definition is more complex than the English...

 

I guess an example would be something like, "If you're not going to finish that candy, I can finish it for you", which would cause a child to start stuffing the candy in their face as fast as they could...

[Nathan Mao]

摩天轮 (scrape sky wheel):

Ferris wheel

[Nathan Mao]

磨唧

aimlessly chatting, nattering on, talking about unimportant things
Example: 第一名大概都让队长带到基地了，咱们还在这磨唧！

[Nathan Mao]

径庭

jing4 ting2

Very unlike.

[Michaelyus]

May be worth mentioning that one is most likely to encounter 径庭 in the 成语 idiom 大相径庭. 

[Nathan Mao]

It wasn't in the 成语 when I encountered it. 

[Nathan Mao]

杵 chu3

Usually means pestle or baton as a noun, or poke as verb.

But I saw used to describe a soldier standing at attention (in a semi-derisive, semi-friendly way):

 

别杵这儿  拿凳子坐。

[Nathan Mao]

贵庚

gui4geng1

How old (are you)?

[Nathan Mao]

阑尾炎

appendicitis

 

盲肠 appendix (organ of the body)