Need help translating

[Brittchevelle]

I got this tattoo when I was 17 after my bestfriend was killed by a drunk driver. I know better now and just super curious and what to know what it means if anything at all. Its old so it's a bit blurred. I tried researching online my self but with no such luck. Please help if you have any ideas. Thanks so much!

[Lu]

乾交. I don't know what that could mean. What did you intend it to say?

[Shelley]

It is blurry but I think it might be 乾 交.

Not sure if it means something together, but gān 乾 means amongst other things relatives not linked by blood and jiāo 交 means friend so maybe it was supposed to mean very good friends.

 

I suspect this will be corrected but its a start.

[Guest]

Perhaps the 交 in this case is short for 交通, i.e. traffic?

I'm ever so sorry to hear about your friend.

[沈立言]

乾 can mean "in vain", and 交 can mean "delivered" as in delivered to heaven possibly; not entirely sure about the connotation. So the whole thing can mean something along the lines of "inexplicable death" which I think fits the situation well, albeit a little bluntly.

[skylee]

↑I disagree with the post above.↑

 

I am also not aware that 交 means friend.

[Shelley]

According to Pleco 交 the first entry is friend, acquaintance, friendship, relationship.

 

I too also don't agree with that post, the meaning seems odd for a tattoo.

[Publius]

Well 交 could mean friend, but only in fixed combinations such as 忘年交,

Also 乾 could mean (relatives) not linked by blood, e.g. 乾爸, 乾媽, 幹女兒, but it too can only combine with certain kinship terms.

You can't put two morphemes together and create a new word at will. What does 'godpal' mean in English?

乾交 isn't a word.

And as a coinage, there are just too many possibilities to determine its meaning.

We need more information. For example, what was the name of the friend? Did the tattoo artist speak Chinese/Japanese at all? What did the OP say to the tattoo artist before getting this tattoo?

[沈立言]

5 hours ago, Shelley said:

I too also don't agree with that post

https://www.yabla.com/chinese-english-pinyin-dictionary.php?define=交

 

This is what I'm going off of. Also, the first entry on Pleco is hand over; give up; deliver. Someone can correct if I'm wrong but 交 can't mean "friend" on it's own just like Publius said...

4 hours ago, Publius said:

Well 交 could mean friend, but only in fixed combinations such as 忘年交

the character on it's own can only mean "to make friends".

[陳德聰]

交 meaning "deliver" does not have the sense of deliver as in "to heaven". When guessing at translations, try to avoid blending different senses of the same word. Just because it comes back as "deliver" in a dictionary does not mean that it can be used for every sense of the word "deliver" in English.

 

Honestly, my first thought when I saw this was something like an expletive. "Eff traffic" or "dry intercourse".

[Shelley]

I really wish the OP could shed some more light on possibly what they intended or wanted. Even if it is sort of vague it might still help.

[roddy]

19 hours ago, Shelley said:

Pleco 交 the first entry is friend

 

13 hours ago, 沈立言 said:

the first entry on Pleco is hand over;

Which *dictionary* are you looking at on Pleco? One of you could be looking at the LDC wordlist (in which case stop, there's no need for that) and the other at the Grand Ricci (in which case, do continue, oh wise one).

 

Without any input from the OP on what it was meant to mean, we're guessing. But my guess is that 沈立言 is on the right track, and what was aimed for was something along the line of 'lost in vain'. Easy to imagine the following coming up from a dictionary or online translator.

乾 - for nothing, in vain

交 - given up, delivered

 

No, it's not right, but that's what happens when you get Chinese character tattoos. 

 

 

 

[bURL]

乾交=幹交＝干交＝做爱?