Random new word of the day

[roddy]

Here's mine:

黑匣子 hēixiázi, black box (ie in a plane). I heard this in a report on the recent plane crash in Thailand and knew what it was from context, but don't remember seeing 匣子 before so looked it up to see what it was.

What's yours? Characters, pinyin, meaning and source. We'll see how many we can get (probably one )

[heifeng]

well last night there was a very interesting program about 韩生元 who must be the most adorable old man in China on the xinjiang channel . Anyway, he is known as the 花儿歌王....

so the new word is 花儿 which is a type of folk singing, you can learn more here

here and here

[Ari 桑]

洋娃娃 (yángwáwá, a doll) has to be one of the most fun words to say as a foreigner. Its not that creative but its what came to mind.

[rob07]

This is fun! I pick 羼水 (chan4shui3), which means to water down alcohol (or, apparently, to adulterate generally). If that is too small to read, the first character is three sheep under a dead body.

我从十二岁起，便在镇口的咸亨酒店里当伙计，掌柜说，样子太傻，怕侍候不了长衫主顾，就在外面做点事罢。外面的短衣主顾，虽然容易说话，但唠唠叨叨缠夹不清的也很不少。他们往往要亲眼看着黄酒从坛子里舀出，看过壶子底里有水没有，又亲看将壶子放在热水里，然后放心：在这严重兼督下，羼水也很为难。

[Tommi]

蜃 shèn - originally means a clam, learned it from this word: 海市蜃楼 - meaning a mirage.

[roddy]

Oddly enough I've read the story from Rob07 (孔乙己 by 鲁迅) and listened to the song 海市蜃楼 by 与非门 but never bothered looking up 羼 or 蜃. And now I don't need to.

Was going to post another one, but will wait till tomorrow. . .

[heifeng]

well i'm going to bump my other threads this and this which operate on the same idea of new, random words... but i'll actually think of a new one to post manana

[Lu]

隆乳 long2 ru (3?) breast enlargement

淋巴結 lin2 ba1 jie2 lymph node

I suspect this article I'm translating will teach me the word for silicone as well, once I've looked up all the difficult words.

花儿 is really cool, I know one Dutch women who researches it, they would only let her into the 花儿 festivals if she could sing too, so she can sing 花儿 herself as well.

[Myriam]

Learnt this word by watching an MV (Music Video) on the web :

客串 = kè chuàn = guest performance, cameo.

[heifeng]

Word for yesterday since I actually was able to pry myself away from the computer for over 24 hours....

I think this takes top spot in being random, because I learned the Chinese in my recent class before even knowing what the English term for this structure is, always fun when that happens...

轭式搭配 e4shi4da1pei4(see point #9, but other vocab is interesting too) =zuegma structure

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Today's word, which came from a program about breeding camels in dubai (which fyi they are primarily used for racing there, and the 母 camels are usually the winners hahah)

妊娠期, ren4shen1qi1 or gestation period...which I guess on that note it's also useful to know 分娩( fen1mian3, or birth) also...hmm, can't find that program on the web, but i'm sure these would easily pop up in other nature programs...oh and stuff on humans of course too..

[rob07]

Diazeugmas exist in English, are found also in Chinese and greatly appeal to me!

I find that the most interesting characters are where two or more bits actually mean something, and it makes sense for them to be together in that character. I particularly like 杲 (gao3) which means bright. It even looks like a picture of the sun above the trees. Personally I haven't seen it used much, just in a couple of names.

As far as names go, I suppose 曌 (zhao4) can be seen as an improved version of 杲. According to Wikipedia, the history of this character is as follows:

"In December 689, ten months before she officially ascended the throne, she [武则天] had the government create the character Zhao (曌), an entirely new invention, created along with 11 other characters in order to show her absolute power, and she chose this new character as her given name, which became her taboo name when she ascended the throne ten months later. The character is made up of 2 pre-existing characters: "Ming" up top meaning "light" or "clearness"; and "kong" on the bottom meaning "sky". The idea behind this is the implication that she is like the light shining from the sky. Even the pronunciation of the new character is exactly the same as "shine" in Chinese."

[Lu]

she [武则天] had the government create the character Zhao (曌), an entirely new invention, created along with 11 other characters in order to show her absolute power, and she chose this new character as her given name, which became her taboo name when she ascended the throne ten months later.

That's actually very thoughtful of her. Instead of giving people a hard time by forbidding them to use an everyday character, she forbade them to use a character that they had done without anyway.

Random word: 討喜, as you would guess, the opposite of 討厭, and used to descibe the secretary at the office where I work.

Random Chinglish (or just bad English) phrase of the day: friendly printed version. Made me smile when I saw it.

[muyongshi]

妊娠期, ren4shen1qi1 or gestation period

That is hilarious. That is a word in my lesson for tomorrow. I guess maybe I should go learn what it actually means in english...(joking)

[heifeng]

Friday:

I have a feeling the computer peeps on this board already knew this word long ago...but I finally know what 驱动 means = qu1dong4 ...driver....(I guess computer applications or otherwise...) sheesh I know people kept yelling at me to download something....now i 'got it':mrgreen:

[bomaci]

Here is a new word I have learnt: hua1ler hua1ler de. No idea how to write it in characters though. Apparently used to describe the sound of water being shaken. I learnt it from this video:

listen at 2:36.

Does anyone know how it is written?

[muyongshi]

It should be 哗. Frequently used to describe the sound of water but not too sure about what the last parts character is...

[chenpv]

妊娠期, ren4shen1qi1 or gestation period...

Which reminds me of '剖腹产'，Cesarean birth.

hua1ler hua1ler de.

哗啦哗啦（any ers are omitted for good.:-）

[madizi]

花子 huāzi is an old word for beggar, 乞丐 qǐgài and is still used today, although rarely. It seems to me that it doesn't have any connection with flower children.

[Quest]

花子 huāzi is an old word for beggar, 乞丐 qǐgài and is still used today, although rarely. It seems to me that it doesn't have any connection with flower children.

叫化子/叫花子

化缘 is an euphemism for begging for something (usually food and money). 叫化 means yelling as to beg for something. 子 does not mean children, it's a suffix for "a person", and in the ancient past for "an honorable person".

[madizi]

Oh, yes, exactly! Friend, who told me that, said 叫花子, but then I checked dictionary and there was just 花子. I thought that she was wrong or that they say it this way in Hunan dialect. But she was actually right.

So, really no connection with flower children.