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switch-around words


tooironic

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  • 2 months later...

Some more...

聯邦 [commonwealth] and 邦聯 [confederation]

蜜蜂 [bee] and 蜂蜜 [honey]

皮包 [handbag/briefcase] and 包皮 [wrapping/foreskin!]

色彩 [colour/colouring] and 彩色 [colour e.g. colour TV]

Edited by tooironic
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  • 1 month later...

More:

* 奶牛 [dairy cow] and 牛奶 [cow's milk]

* 感情 [emotion/affection for someone or something] and 情感 [emotions in general]

* 罪犯 [criminal] and 犯罪 [to commit a crime]

* 年青 [young] and 青年 [young person]

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there's interesting switch-around words involving Japanese and Chinese:

語言 yǔyán means the same as 言語 gengo (言語 in Chinese is rarely used)

和平 hépíng means the same as 平和 heiwa (平和 pínghé in Chinese and 和平 wahei in Japanese both exist, but they both mean something different)

滅絕 mièjué means the same as 絶滅 zetsumetsu (絕滅 in Chinese is rarely used)

狂熱 kuángrè means the same as 熱狂nekkyō

there's some more but I forget...

Edited by chrix
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Here's some more examples on this French-language forum on Chinese I just found (even if you don't read French, you'll be able to see the Chinese characters): http://www.chine-nouvelle.com/forum/read.html?q=5,95286

It's a bit different from our list since they list words that change their meaning when switched around...

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