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Random new word of the day


roddy

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用膳, yòngshàn - to eat a meal - I think referring to the emperor, or perhaps just in the palace, I'm not sure. The other difference between that and 吃饭 beyond the fact that if you send me 用膳 in an SMS I spend 5 minutes on a bumpy bus trying to write 膳 into Pleco, whereas if you use 吃饭 I know what you mean. It's my own fault for sending text messages using vocabulary acquired while watching Di Renjie though . . .

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蚊子 - mosquito

As a word referring to a kind of insect, almost every one knows it.

I heard it this moring on TV programme about things in Taiwan.

蚊子机场 —— meant to refer an airport of little use

蚊子馆 —— a studium or museum where few people go to.

I think it is only Taiwanese way, but believe it is acceptable in Putonghua.

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假日时几乎都在家里睡觉,穿着高中时代的体育服装,歪斜躺在家里喝啤酒看棒球转播、DVD等

Anyone else just fallen in love with Randall's friend or is just me?

王化, wánghuà, civilizing influence. Again from Di Renjie.

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炙zhi4 to bake or to roast (meat)

As seen in the subtitles of the Korean movie 食客。

Never seen this character d before...and never tasted anything fresh out of the oven of over here, either.

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I have to say this.

Perhaps you know the "Chinese" soup called 罗宋汤, beetroot and cabbage are some of the main ingredients. It sounds like [Luósòng tāng], which is "Russian soup" or "borshch".

The normal word for Russia is 俄罗斯 [Éluósī] but in this particular case, it's a transliteration from the English (音译) "Russian". The Russian words for Russian and Russia are quite different: русский (russky) ("u" as in "put", not "but"!), Россия (Rossiya).

There is a Chinese word borrowed from Russian: хлеб (khleb or khlyeb) -> 列巴 (lièbā) - "bread". It's used in Harbin, Dalian and some other North-Eastern Chinese cities.

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Here they say 阿兵哥 a1bing1ge1 for soldier (not derogatory as far as I can tell).

New word I came across yesterday: what is 九兆萬 (also written 九萬兆)? I started counting zeroes, but it does not mean 90 quadrillion. No, some journalist was too creative, and coined this word for Ma Yingjiu, his vice-president Xiao Wanchang, and his premier Liu Zhaoxuan.

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笄之年 (ji1 zhi1 nian2) - an old term for the time at which a girl comes of age. The 笄 was a type of hairpin which was used to tie up an adult woman's hair and started to be used at the earlier of her turning 15 or getting engaged to be married.

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