Bra La Hao Di Ah Life Goes On

[Kobo-Daishi]

Dear all,

What is the Chinese for "bra"?

Kobo-Daishi, PLLA.

[trien27]

胸罩 = bra, as in "female underwear."

胸 = chest [body part]

罩 = cover

Bra La Hao Di Ah = 胸罩拉好低啊 = The / Your bra is pulled down very low!

If this really is the case, then the woman might be blushing by now, unless the person watching is her boyfriend, maybe?

Source: http://www.nciku.com/search/all/bra

Edited April 20, 2010 at 02:10 AM by trien27

[Kobo-Daishi]

Dear all,

Is there another way of saying "bra"?

Possibly from Cantonese?

Kobo-Daishi, PLLA.

[skylee]

in hk cantonese, bra is 胸圍.

[Kobo-Daishi]

Dear all,

Skylee wrote:

in hk cantonese, bra is 胸圍.

Isn't there another Cantonese way of saying "bra"?

One that might now have entered into mainstream standard Chinese?

Kobo-Daishi, PLLA.

[Kenny同志]

胸罩 or 文胸 is a polite way to refer to the underware.

奶罩 sounds vulgar.

Also it is less frequently called 乳罩.

Edited April 22, 2010 at 12:45 AM by kenny2006woo

[Lu]

Is there another way of saying "bra"?

The most used term is 胸罩. What exactly are you looking for, in what context?

[Kobo-Daishi]

Dear all,

Lu wrote:

The most used term is 胸罩. What exactly are you looking for, in what context?

Okay, I'll come clean.

Kenny2006woo wrote:

胸罩 or 文胸 is a polite way to refer to the underware.

奶罩 sounds vulgar.

Kenny2006woo has the answer I was looking for.

The other day I was watching a downloaded copy of a recent episode of the American crime drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (also known as "CSI: Las Vegas") with simplified Chinese subtitles provided by Chinese netizens.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CSI:_Crime_Scene_Investigation

The episode in question was about a murder at a hotel where they were holding a sales show for men who like to buy women' used panties.

They had items selling for up to $2,000. (sh)

For those not used to American money, a medium-range netbook sells for about $350.

You do the maths...er...math.

Supposedly, in Japan they've got vending machines with used panties but you can't believe everything you see on TV.

The victim was an employee of the hotel who was found without her panties but her matching bra was intact.

The three times they mentioned "bra", they used the Chinese "文胸".

I'd remembered seeing the characters in "A New Century Chinese-English Dictionary" (Xin Shiji Han Ying Da Cidian), with the note that it's "fang", a dialectal word, which really pissed me off since it doesn't tell you which dialect and also how common it is, enough so as to be included in a regular dictionary rather than a specialized dialect dictionary.

I looked the characters up at the online Guoyu Cidian (Taiwan) web site and the Lin Yutang's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage (Hong Kong) web site.

No dice.

I checked the Xiandai Hanyu Cidian, it had the entry and didn't even include "fang" meaning that they don't even note it as being dialectal.

I checked the Hanyu Fangyan Da Cidian, a dictionary on Chinese dialects, and it said that it's Cantonese for an article of clothing that women used in the old days to bind their bosoms.

Since it was included in the CSI episode's subtitles I figured it was mainstream enough to be considered a part of standard modern Chinese but wanted verification so I posted my query here, at the Chinese Cantonese Forums and at the Forumosa (Taiwan) forum to see how common it is. Many people at these sites with an extensive knowledge of Chinese and quite a few are native speakers as well.

So far Kenny2006woo is the only one to give wenxiong as a reply.

Kobo-Daishi, PLLA.

[trien27]

I found this for 文胸 online:

文胸这个听上去雅致但实际上有点让人莫名其妙的名字是怎样进入内地，取代了普通话中的乳罩、奶罩、胸罩和乳褡等固有的叫法，今已不可考。但它的香港色彩似乎不容置疑。

From the above, there's also 乳褡 for bra in Chinese.

[Kenny同志]

A translator will always find dictionaries not so satisfactory. He must enrich his knowledge through examining various language materials, especailly through reading works by reliable writers.

Generally speaking, a dictionary using Chinese to define Chinese is reliable, but tons of new words are absent due to the fact that it lags behind the linguistic dynamics. This, of course, inevitably troubles Chinese learners and even native speakers because they have to turn to other resources. In this regard, English dictionaries are better. A CE or EC dictionary is always notoriously crappy due to the huge differences between the two languages. It seems none of the two types are free from mistakes or inaccurateness. When I have doubts about an English word, I would first consult an English dictionary and then proceed to a Chinese one for the best translation, or quite often, I think of an translation that would satisfy myself.

Edited April 22, 2010 at 05:12 AM by kenny2006woo