How did 单板 become associated with snowboarding?

[Dawei3]

A Chinese friend in 北京 noted that snowboarding is called 单板 (or 单板滑雪, but she just says 单板).  This led to a discussion on why translation apps translate 单板 to “veneer” in English (Pleco also translates 单板 to “single board”  as in computing.)  None of the apps I have translate 单板 into snowboarding (but they go the other way, translating snowboard into 单板滑雪).  Google translator is dynamic and reflects changing usages, so the written use of 单板 must not be common enough to trigger the change.

 

Can anyone provide the history of 单板 and how it became associated with snowboarding?  Did it originally mean just veneer and then get applied to a computer board and then this meaning expand to snowboarding?  Or is there another explanation? 

 

A related aside:  Guy Deutscher's superb "The unfolding of language" has given me a deep understanding of how the meaning of words evolve.  It's an absolutely fascinating book.  

[Jan Finster]

I do not know about the history of it, but "single board" (dān= single, bǎn =board) sounds perfectly logical to me. A bit like "ice box" (冰箱) for freezer. 

 

 

 

 

单    單    Shàn    surname Shan
单    單    dān    bill; list; form; single; only; sole; odd number; CL:個|个[ge4]
 

板    板    bǎn    board; plank; plate; shutter; table tennis bat; clappers (music); 
板    闆    bǎn    see 老闆|老板, boss

    闆    pàn    to catch sight of in a doorway (old)

 

[Publius]

You know 滑雪板, right? The pair of wood/metal/plastic narrow board-like things you attach to your shoes so you can glide over snow? Normally you need a pair of 滑雪板s to 滑雪. But in snowboarding you only need one broad 滑雪板, hence 单板滑雪. Very logical to me.

[Jim]

Yes, it's to contrast with the two that were more familiar to traditional slidy down hill in winter types until not so long back.

[Flickserve]

Pleco has 滑雪板 as snowboard. 

[幽默感]

In case it's of interest, my Pleco does have snowboard as a definition for 单板 probably as I have several add-on dictionaries loaded.

The "KEY" dictionary has veneer, and snowboard.

Also for 单板滑雪 both CC and KEY dictionaries have an entry, "to snowboard", and "snowboarding" respectively.

Single board slide snow seems a totally logical name to me too! ?