switch-around words

[taylor04]

I use wenlin not cedict, I've found it to be pretty trustworthy. I asked my friend about 大变 and she said it could be either a big change or something horrible.

As far as 肤皮, I'm not sure where I learned this word. I double checked wenlin and it says dandruff-like dead skin. I can't vouch for the accuracy and don't even remember what situation I saw this word in.

[imron]

大变 and "tragic accident/ big misfortune" are not words you'd want to hear together too often (see 变‘s homonym 便)

[taylor04]

Don't even start Imron, I almost accidentally typed that:mrgreen:

[andelicek.andy]

想念 (verb) remember

念想 (noun) thoughts

[tooironic]

犯人 (criminal/convict) & 人犯 (archaic - suspect in a criminal case)

and

语源 (etymology/derivation) & 原语 (source language)

Edited December 27, 2009 at 01:11 AM by tooironic

[Guoke]

皮包 = briefcase

包皮 = foreskin

[Guoke]

办法 = way, measure

法办 = bring to justice

来历 = background, past history

历来 = always

行善 = to do good

善行 = good deeds

为人 = to behave

人为 = man-made

人工 = artificial

工人 = worker

文人 = scholar

人文 = the cultural activities in human society

生产 = to produce; to give birth to

产生 = to give rise to; to bring about

手动 = manual

动手 = to start work

[crazillo]

国外 / 外国

[trien27]

"Late night snack"/"Midnight snack"; supper [a late meal, mostly after dinner time, in places where Chinese people live. Sometimes, it's the term used like "dessert" in English.]

夜宵 = Mandarin

宵夜 = Cantonese

[jbradfor]

會議 (meeting, conference) vs 議會 (parliament, legislative assembly)

[tooironic]

寻找 xúnzhǎo v. seek; look for

找寻 zhǎoxún v. look for; seek (and possibly some other meanings I'm not sure about)

[cababunga]

Here is a list of all 1861 such pairs extracted from CEDICT. (Traditional and simplified all mixed together and considered separate words.)

switch-arounds.txt

[xianhua]

和谐 - harmonious

谐和 - harmonious

[heifeng]

变更 、更变 to change

自擅、擅自 take it upon oneself to do s.t. w/o permission

[skylee]

I think 更變 and 自擅 are quite uncommon.