Random Character of the Day

[EnergyReaper]

On 3/16/2023 at 2:52 AM, Tomsima said:

I have always used something like "ga zhe wo" (no idea what the characters are) for armpit

What I often see is 胳肢窝, or sometimes 夹肢窝, which may be pronounced as "ga zhi wo" or "ge zhi wo". But with my southern accent, I pronounce it as "ga ji wo".

[Tomsima]

(As is usually the case) I have within a couple of days of reading already come across this in a book, in this instance the form used is 夹, but presumably with the pronunciation 'ga1'

[Dlezcano]

趿 (ta1), which is a word that appears mostly with 拉. The compound 趿拉 means "to shuffle about with the backs of one's shoes trodden down."

I found this word in a novel of 王朔 called 《无人喝彩》. The original line says: "她站起来，从拖鞋中伸出一只脚，用大脚拇指关了电视，然后趿着拖鞋绕过书柜。”

By the way asked a native about this word and was told he did know the word but didn't know it was written this way.

 

[EnergyReaper]

On 3/27/2023 at 9:55 PM, Dlezcano said:

By the way asked a native about this word and was told he did know the word but didn't know it was written this way.

Me too, so in spoken language, I often use 拖拉 to replace 趿拉.?

[TheBigZaboon]

In Japan, where shoes aren't worn indoors, many people, especially youngsters and people who often enter and exit houses or parts of houses or shops where shoes must be removed, can't be bothered to tie and untie them every time. So they wear their shoes like this all the time, and it looks so painful to me. In all the years I've lived here, I never heard, or even thought, that there was a separate verb (or noun) for this, although it stands to reason there should be. Now I have to ask my wife.

 

Stay tuned...

 

TBZ

 

Edit : By the way, I'm taking this to mean the back part of the shoe that wraps around and cups the wearer's heel is stepped on and bent flush with  the insole, and not to mean the heel portion of the sole is worn down.

[EnergyReaper]

On 3/31/2023 at 12:30 PM, TheBigZaboon said:

By the way, I'm taking this to mean the back part of the shoe that wraps around and cups the wearer's heel is stepped on and bent flush with  the insole, and not to mean the heel portion of the sole is worn down.

Yes, just like the picture below. Some youngsters often wear plat shoes this way in the road. Maybe they think it's cool.?

 

个性女青年的“丧”（原来穿鞋子也可以这么“丧”。买一双运动鞋或平板鞋，前面鞋带一定要系的完美，然后把后鞋跟踩下去。穿出拖鞋的即视感）

没有什么搭配是一双趿拉板儿不能解决的

[TheBigZaboon]

Thank you. But here in Japan, it's not only young people with stylish shoes that have laces, it's anyone who removes or puts on shoes of all types, but can't stop to tie and untie them, for whatever reason.

 

I promise to run this problem down, and provide everyone the satisfaction that true enlightenment brings. Whether you want it or not?????????...

 

TBZ

[TheBigZaboon]

It turns out that the Japanese idol group AKB48 has a song called さよなら踵踏む人(sayonara, kakatofumu hito) which seems to chronicle a girl breaking up with a boy who's the kind of boy who walks in his shoes as pointed out above. I don't know anything about the song, or whether it approves or disapproves of the boy in question. But this is a lucky find to illustrate the Japanese version of the Chinese phrase we're talking about.

 

When I asked my wife about a noun or a verb describing this phenomenon, she couldn't come up with a phrase off the top of her head. But when I put one of her suggestions into a search engine, this song came up.

 

It seems that there's also some flexibility in the characters used to write it : 踏む　践む　and a third one, 履む.

 

In any case, I gave you what I promised, even if you don't want it...

 

TBZ

[Jim]

哂 shěn - both a friendly little smile and a sneer, it seems; encountered it in former meaning.

[Tomsima]

妯, and therefore also 娌 

Both exclusively appear in the word 妯娌 zhóu li 'wives of brothers'

Feel like its likely more often used in south China...maybe popular in Yue dialects then brought into Mandarin? Today is the first time I heard this word used, when I asked what the characters were, 女字旁加一个由, 女字旁加一个里, it apparently seared into my memory for good...interesting!

[Tomsima]

馗

kui2

A personal name character. Turned up in 钟馗, the name of a spirit/god that guards houses and was often pasted on doors to ward off evil spirits. 

I particularly liked it as it tricked me with the 九 thinking it was 尢 in the kaishu font on my pleco. 

[Jim]

盝 [lù] https://baike.baidu.com/item/盝/6557730 has base meaning of a small dressing table, encountered it in this news story about a old tomb: 河北大名发现一合唐朝时期墓志 距今1329年 (msn.cn) in the compound 盝顶式 which apaprently means a flat or even roof, so the derivation seems clear.

[Tomsima]

I think I'm getting this right, 墓志盖 refers to the lid which has the bigger characters of the 墓志铭 on it, like the right hand side here:

 

 

This would make sense, as 盝顶 is the architectural name for the roof shape you see on some very old Chinese buildings (this part is new to me, I don't consider myself a Chinese roof expert by any stretch of the imagination):

 

 

Resemblance clear enough. So what exactly does 盝 really mean? Looking at early dictionaries, Kangxi quotes 廣韻：去水也 as one of the earliest meanings. It only later comes to mean a dresser or a box for a dresser later by the looks of things. I would presume that this meaning stems from the shape of the roof that was mimicked on the lid of the box. The roof itself presumably had a design that 'shed water', hence the meaning of 盝. The 皿 of the character might be a later choice, as there are similar characters that seem to have been used interchangeably in history (簏，滤). 

[Dlezcano]

罅 xia4, which means "gap", like a "gap between clouds" (云罅). I saw it somewhere in 《平凡的世界》.

[Tomsima]

璺

 

wen4

a crack in glassware or potteryware. 

usage "窗上的玻璃裂了一大道璺，用报纸糊着” （四世同堂：饥荒）

[Woodford]

On 8/5/2023 at 3:56 AM, Tomsima said:

（四世同堂：饥荒）

I have that set of books on my shelf! I have yet to read them (I'm planning to), but at least now I have a sample of the kinds of crazy characters that will be waiting for me when I begin.

[Tomsima]

@Woodford It should be a very comfortable read for you, very few rare characters across the three books (I would guess I learned about 20 new characters over the course of 1000+ pages) Great storytelling, would strongly recommend

[Tomsima]

捩

lie4/li4

 

to turn about

 

I'm reading 老残游记 at the moment and the opening chapter is talking a lot about boats. This was use to describe the rudder of a ship being rotated so the ship would make an about turn.

 

I always find characters like this one interesting, as it's an example of the suprisingly common category of character that is both semantic+phonetic and semantic+semantic (戾 being pronounced li4 and meaning 'perverse, go against'). Is there a specific accepted term for this kind of character? semantic-semantophonetic...? One would presume that there are so many of these kinds of characters because the addition of the semantic qualifier often comes later when multiple meanings develop from one original character. In this case it seems the 手 is specifically qualifying 戾 as [VERB戾], moreso than the character 捩 is [Hand action+ phonetic 'li']

[Jim]

馘 guó - to cut off the left ear as punishment/battle trophy, all the citations seem to be very early texts, though I encountered it in a compound 馘首 in a mid-20th century novel about more recent history which I'm taking to mean beheaded from the context.

[Lu]

On 8/31/2023 at 2:23 PM, Jim said:

馘 guó - to cut off the left ear as punishment/battle trophy

This word is apparently not as rare as one would think. At least not on this forum ?

Which novel did you see it in?