Random new word of the day

[wushucrab20]

I thought this was really interesting. This isn't practical at all, just for fun, but I was surprised when I read this paragraph in 西游记 at how many 马 characters could be squeezed into a few short lines and even more so by how many I didn't know existed     Has anyone else seen more than a few of these ?

[skylee]

大時代 - a period when the HK stock prices rise like crazy (HK allows free flow of capital so people can inject their funds in the market freely) which is usually (and inevitably) followed by a plunge of the prices

丁蟹效應 - Ting Hai Effect / Adam Cheng Effect - this is not easy to explain as you will have to watch the TV drama 大時代 to fully understand it, but here are two articles about it -

http://www.cnbc.com/id/102597282

http://media.people.com.cn/n/2015/0416/c40606-26852571.html

[wushucrab20]

彩绘玻璃－cai3hui4 bo1li  - Stained glass. This is one I had never thought to look up before and didn't bump into until today.

[Demonic_Duck]

I thought this was really interesting. This isn't practical at all, just for fun, but I was surprised when I read this paragraph in 西游记 at how many 马 characters could be squeezed into a few short lines and even more so by how many I didn't know existed     Has anyone else seen more than a few of these ?

The only one I knew previously was 骥.

 

I once met a pair of twins whose given names were 骥 and 骜 (you can guess which animal year they were born in).

[Michaelyus]

婆娑 pósuō

 

Learnt this yesterday. Particularly collocated with tree branches: refers to their whirling dance-like motion (a metaphor which I've not come across all that often in the [limited] English literature I've read). Comes from the 《诗经》 apparently. Not to be confused with the Buddhist Sanskrit-derived term  娑婆, from sahāloka, traditionally glossed as "The World to be Endured" (堪忍世界).

[skylee]

婆娑 is also used here -> http://www.chinese-forums.com/index.php?/statuses/user/32-skylee/?status_id=2785

[Michaelyus]

哇，好巧！It must be the season for it... 

[Lu]

宝相花 bǎoxiānghuā (or is it bǎoxiànghuā?) baoxiang flower, a traditional decorative pattern, depicting a flower that is kind of a combination of a peony and a lotus flower. Buddhist symbol, of happiness I think.

 

You learn something new every day. Especially when deciphering the description of a 6th century vase. I expect to now see this flower pop up everywhere, where it was all the time except I never really noticed.

[skylee]

榮民 - retired soldiers, veterans

[anonymoose]

铱 yī iridium

钇 yǐ yttrium

镱 yì ytterbium

 

Correct tones are critical in chemistry.

 

Having said that, I had a chemistry teacher who pronounced 氨、胺、铵 all as ān, and didn't even know there was a difference until I showed him a dictionary.

 

氨 ān ammonia

铵 ăn ammonium

胺 àn amine

[skylee]

膕窩 - the hollow at the back of the knee

I think few people know this word. I didn't. All I could come up with was 膝頭後面.

[skylee]

逆鱗 - the scales below the throat of a dragon

I came across 撫天子之逆鱗 watching 武媚娘傳奇. Before that, I had seen a Korean film with the title “逆鱗”.

See the photo for meaning and implication. The 嬰 in the photo is a verb meaning to irritate/ offend.

[Lu]

不能自已 bù néng zì yǐ can't contain oneself, can't help oneself.

 

This is really tricky. I can't tell 己 and 已 apart, don't even know which is which, I always go by context. And this is where that approach royally trips me up.

[skylee]

My mom taught me - 開口己、閉口巳、半合已.

[anonymoose]

How does that help you distinguish them?

[dwq]

You memorize it using the different pronunciations, associate the sound with the meaning, and recite it when reading / writing.

[roddy]

One for the 'makes perfect sense' category: 沘, Bǐ, the name of a river in Yunnan. 

[Demonic_Duck]

This is really tricky. I can't tell 己 and 已 apart, don't even know which is which, I always go by context. And this is where that approach royally trips me up.

This always trips me up too. My (very weak) mnemonic is "‘已’ looks more closed than ‘己’ and [jǐ] is more of a closed sound than [yǐ], but it's the opposite way around to how I'd expect, therefore ‘已’ = [yǐ] and ‘己’ = [jǐ]". Takes me a little while to think through that if suddenly faced with one of the two characters out of a familiar context, though.

 

I think skylee's mnemonic is better... it's just one of those things you have to memorise 'til it becomes second nature.

[roddy]

已 is 已经 starting to close. 

[Lu]

石棉 shímián asbestos

 

Character in the story I'm translating describes the house (well, shack) he's considering renting. I was rather surprised to see him so casually mentioning corrugated asbestos sheets, since my immediate association with asbestos is not 'building' but 'danger! cancer!!'. I wonder if I should leave that word 'asbestos' out of the translation, since clearly the character doesn't consider it a big deal in any way while the Dutch reader certainly would.