Random new word of the day

[Jim]

Don't know, actually came across it watching a very silly cartoon with my daughter in a Transformers vein where the meaning was clearly passively misfire (an overheated space slug pistol!), then looking it up saw the fizzle out sense offered too in a couple of dictionaries. Can completely imagine the active usages you give from sport being far more common but never caught it myself.

[Lu]

闪烁 shǎnshuò 1) to twinkle, to glimmer 2) to be evasive, to be non-committal

 

’呃，没有通知你吗？‘

’通知了。。。但我当时有事。。。‘她缓缓地说，言词闪烁。

 

I only knew the first meaning. Glad I looked it up before making a very stupid translation mistake.

[Tomsima]

日食（蝕）solar eclipse

月食（蝕）lunar eclipse
全食（蝕）total eclipse

I actually found these words reading the chinese wiki entry on Mesopotamia, where it has “日食和月蚀”. The use of characters threw me, useful for clarifying the use of both characters can be found in all eclipse related terms. The fact that I would probably read 全食 as something comical like 'ate it all' without this knowledge, thought it was worth sharing it here

[Publius]

胸是炒鸡蛋 Beijingese for 西红柿炒鸡蛋 (Stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs)

装垫儿台 Beijingese for 中央电视台 (China Central Television, CCTV)

[Guest realmayo]

8 hours ago, Publius said:

胸是炒鸡蛋 Beijingese for 西红柿炒鸡蛋 (Stir-fried tomato and scrambled eggs)

装垫儿台 Beijingese for 中央电视台 (China Central Television, CCTV) 

This one took some working out, I'm not gonna lie....

[889]

食豆腐 "taking sexual advantage of a woman through verbal or physical harassment." (Cantonese slang)

 

https://www.hongkongfp.com/2019/05/25/hong-kong-sexual-connotation-ikeas-new-tofu-ice-cream-ad-creates-controversy/

[Publius]

Not just Cantonese.

吃豆腐 is in 《汉语大词典》, 《现代汉语词典》, and 《重編國語辭典》: http://www.guoxuedashi.com/hydcd/84755n.html

 

方言。指调戏妇女。
  ●茅盾《子夜》十三：「你不要慌，我同女人是规规矩矩的，不揩油，不吃豆腐。」
  ●郑定文《大姐》：「天亮做到天黑，工钱只有一点点……流氓还要吃豆腐，欺侮我们。」

 

I have an impression that it was originally Jiangnan dialect (both writers cited above are from Zhejiang) but now understood everywhere.

 

EDIT: We can probably guess how it arrived at this meaning from Pleco's Cross-Strait Chinese Dictionary:

4 【陸】指舊時江浙一帶，喪家為前來幫忙喪事者所準備的飯菜中必有豆腐，後因忌諱喪事，便稱前往喪家弔唁吃飯為「吃豆腐」。

 

去辦喪事的人家弔唁吃飯⇒吃白食⇒佔便宜⇒調戲

[Jim]

揶揄 yé yú - tease, ridicule, mock etc., read it here: https://news.163.com/19/0527/01/EG578I9K0001875O.html Feels like I ought to have known it but honestly can't recall ever encountering it.

[Tomsima]

順拐

Means to walk with what I believe is called an asymmetrical gait, when the left hand swings forward as the left foot steps forward, then vice versa. Sometimes comical to look at.

 

https://zh.m.wiktionary.org/zh-hant/顺拐

[Michaelyus]

7 hours ago, Tomsima said:

順拐

Means to walk with what I believe is called an asymmetrical gait, when the left hand swings forward as the left foot steps forward, then vice versa. Sometimes comical to look at.

 

https://zh.m.wiktionary.org/zh-hant/顺拐

 

Just to note that the zh.Wiktionary page says it's a Beijing-ism. Today was my first time seeing it too (having had only limited contact with the colloquial speech of Beijingers).

[Tomsima]

I bumped into it on a 彈幕 while watching 甄嬛傳, in the sentence 皇后娘娘走路順拐！Interesting about the Beijingism comment on the wiki, as my wife from hubei says it's pretty common and everyone knows it……so now I'm just left in a state of confusion as usual

[Publius]

Interesting it's not in any paper dictionaries including 徐世荣《北京土语辞典》 and 董树人《新编北京方言词典》. I wonder where it comes from. Maybe Dongbei?

[Jim]

Saw a story for father's day about pics of dad's toothbrushes with all the bristles worn and bent being circulated on social media which is apparently 炸毛, the word gets used for when an animal has its fur all sticking up (works for a person's hair too) and is also apparently a dialect slang for losing your temper; all new to me: https://baike.baidu.com/item/炸毛/10047851?fr=aladdin

[陳德聰]

5 hours ago, Tomsima said:

I bumped into it on a 彈幕 while watching 甄嬛傳, in the sentence 皇后娘娘走路順拐！Interesting about the Beijingism comment on the wiki, as my wife from hubei says it's pretty common and everyone knows it……so now I'm just left in a state of confusion as usual

 

I think the only context I’ve ever actually encountered this word is when watching funny videos of people doing their military training at university. I’d assume everyone knows it at least in part because everyone has seen someone struggle to walk properly in that first week of school

[murrayjames]

On 4/9/2019 at 5:54 PM, Lu said:

闪烁 shǎnshuò 1) to twinkle, to glimmer 2) to be evasive, to be non-committal

 

’呃，没有通知你吗？‘

’通知了。。。但我当时有事。。。‘她缓缓地说，言词闪烁。

 

This is a good one. I’ve seen 闪烁 used in ways I didn’t understand before.

 

Where is the quote from?

[murrayjames]

下海

from 百度词典：指放弃原来的工作而经营商业。

 

I encountered this word in a passage from 韩寒’s novel 《1988：我想和这个世界谈谈》. The passage describes 孙老板, a spa/massage club owner and pimp:

 

Quote

那个老板叫孙老板，他一直换名字的，我就叫她孙老板，他很早前是从机关单位下岗的，哦，不，是下海的。

 

[Publius]

39 minutes ago, murrayjames said:

下海

from 百度词典：指放弃原来的工作而经营商业。

More precisely, 放弃国营(esp. 事业)单位的工作(a.k.a. 铁饭碗)而投身商业、实业界(i.e. 市场经济的汪洋大海). It is a word that harks back to the 1980-90s. Before that, in late Qing and the Nationalist era,下海 means an amateur opera singer (票友) turns professional. So it's a revival of a disused word. Then it died again...

[murrayjames]

@Publius

 

When 下海 is used today, does it refer specifically to people who leave government and go into business, or to people who go into business in general (from any field)?

[Publius]

It's no longer used today. 下海潮 is a thing of the past. The tide has turned. Today, people kill to get into government, or failing that, state-owned big companies.

[Lu]

16 hours ago, murrayjames said:

Where is the quote from?

The short story 昼若夜房间 by 张悦然.