Random new word of the day

[ouyangjun]

后会有期 - to meet again at some time in the future.  The saying appears in a Qing novel 《镜花缘》from the early 19th century... “此时暂且失陪，我们后会有期，大约回头岸上即可相见”。

 

I found out about this chengyu due to the recent movie from 韩寒 that has a similar title, 后会无期, which takes on pretty much the opposite meaning of the chengyu above.  后会无期  - you may never meet again.

[skylee]

禮樂崩壞 - This is not a new term to me. Actually I used it today to describe Hong Kong and its government. But then I wondered if I had got the order of the words wrong, so I looked it up in the MOE dictionary, and was quite amused to find the many variations of this very flexible term (see the attached link and photo). And I did not get the order of the words wrong. Haha.

https://www.moedict.tw/%E7%A6%AE%E5%A3%9E%E6%A8%82%E5%B4%A9#%E7%84%89

[MPhillips]

衣冠冢 (yi1guan1zhong3) ～ cenotaph (from the Greek for "empty tomb")

[skylee]

I wonder if 衣冠塚 and cenotaph are exactly the same.

[MPhillips]

I don't think the two are quite the same thing, because when I did an internet search for 衣冠冢 I learned that one exists in Beijing for 孫中山 , so in China apparently great men may have both a tomb & an 衣冠冢 built in their honor. I'm not sure whether such a practice exists in the West, I just assumed a cenotaph was built only because the mortal remains of the person(s) so honored couldn't be found, but I need to research it further. Addendum: just looked it up--in the West too there do exist cenotaphs for great individuals whose mortal remains are buried elsewhere--Wikipedia gives the example of Dante Alighieri as a person so honored. I like the word 衣冠冢 better than cenotaph--it's so poetic!

[skylee]

My understanding is that a 衣冠塚 is a tomb, whereas a cenotaph （紀念碑） is a monument.

[MPhillips]

Dear Skylee--You are right. On Wikipedia they have photos from various Commonwealth countries of monuments called "cenotaphs" which appear to be what we here in the US call "war memorials". So it seems that what's called a 纪念碑 in China, is called either a monument or a memorial in the US (two examples being the Washington Monument & the Lincoln Memorial) & a cenotaph in the rest of the English-speaking world (the word cenotaph is virtually unheard of in the US)--all of which are indeed "monuments". On the other hand, an 衣冠冢, according to Baidu, must by definition contain apparel or other personal effects from the deceased (in lieu of the corpse), so maybe there is no good English translation for 衣冠冢 because "tomb", to me at least, suggests there is a body, although I'm just not sure. I'm sorry if I've created any confusion, I just took my definition for 衣冠冢 from the dictionary on this website without researching any further. I've only just realized what a complicated subject this is!

[MPhillips]

I think my confusion over the word "cenotaph" results from wanting to find a useful distinction between it and other similar words such as monument & memorial. It's easy to see why it fell out of use in the US as it appears there is none between it & "memorial".

[MPhillips]

Just learned China's southern neighbor Laos is called 寮國 （liao2guo2）in Taiwan--not 老撾 （lao3wo1）as on the Mainland.

[Kanjiology]

溃疡性结肠炎 (kui4yang2xing4jie2chang2yan2) - ulcerative colitis 

[imron]

忍者龟 - Ninja Turtles

[roddy]

兕. You can tell what it means just by looking at it, because Chinese is pictographic. 

[Lu]

Someone who had their head bashed in? [Checks Nciku] Oh wow, there's a character for that.

[Guest realmayo]

A man called Doug?

[MPhillips]

囟 (xin4) 門 － fontanel (the hole you have in your skull when you're born)

[tooironic]

知了 zhīliǎo
[名]蝉。叫声像“知了”，故称。

 

English: 知了, cicada. From the sound it makes.

 

The word was mentioned in another post recently, but coincidentally one of my friends mentioned it this week and I thought it was pretty cool.

[ouyangjun]

螳螂捕蝉，黄雀在后 - to be unaware of of impending danger, to seek a small reward but not aware of the bigger risk that waits ahead.

[oceancalligraphy]

I think you guys might find this one interesting. I was reminded of it when I heard it on the news the other day.

 

壓倒駱駝的最後一根稻草 - the straw that broke the camel's back

[MPhillips]

撒手人寰 "to shuffle off this mortal coil"

[MPhillips]

登場人物 dramatis personae