Jim Posted February 2, 2021 at 01:10 AM Report Share Posted February 2, 2021 at 01:10 AM 6 hours ago, roddy said: Things going a bit rural in lockdown there, Jim? How's the wicker man coming on? Lockdown over! Back down to stringent entry checks. But been forced to flick through the classics to relieve the boredom, hence the antique characters. Going through the Zuo Tradition with a parallel translation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomsima Posted March 4, 2021 at 08:03 PM Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2021 at 08:03 PM 怹 Yes, it is the honorific form of 他, 'tan1', something I never knew existed - how blissfully these years have passed in the ignorance of thinking that 您 was the only one, unique in its politeness among all the other vulgar pronouns. Perhaps only 祂 might come close, but 怹 has really knocked me for six! 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
roddy Posted March 4, 2021 at 08:06 PM Report Share Posted March 4, 2021 at 08:06 PM Wow, where 您 find that? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomsima Posted March 4, 2021 at 08:14 PM Author Report Share Posted March 4, 2021 at 08:14 PM 4 minutes ago, roddy said: Wow, where 您 find that? It popped up in the 赵元任 grammar, which if anyone is interested, is an absolute goldmine of information. In fact, the more I read the more upset I find myself becoming that this book seems to have been 'forgotten' by the mainstream, its quite a phenomenal work. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
大块头 Posted March 4, 2021 at 09:24 PM Report Share Posted March 4, 2021 at 09:24 PM 1 hour ago, Tomsima said: 怹 Some context: As per the BLCU corpus 怹 is the 9204th most common character, with a frequency of 0.019 per million characters. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomsima Posted March 5, 2021 at 12:58 AM Author Report Share Posted March 5, 2021 at 12:58 AM 3 hours ago, 大块头 said: with a frequency of 0.019 per million characters I'll check in again next time I come across the character, maybe when Roddy is doing site upgrades from his bedside in the retirement home...watch this space 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
大块头 Posted March 20, 2021 at 11:48 PM Report Share Posted March 20, 2021 at 11:48 PM Came across another highly specific third person pronoun (that's 30 times more common than 怹): Spoiler 祂 tā He (used to refer to deities, especially the Abrahamic god) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomsima Posted March 21, 2021 at 12:04 PM Author Report Share Posted March 21, 2021 at 12:04 PM On 3/4/2021 at 8:03 PM, Tomsima said: Perhaps only 祂 might come close ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
大块头 Posted March 21, 2021 at 12:48 PM Report Share Posted March 21, 2021 at 12:48 PM Ugh, I missed that! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted July 13, 2021 at 02:57 PM Report Share Posted July 13, 2021 at 02:57 PM 勰 xié which means concord or harmony and mostly appears in names apparently. I saw it in the name of a Eastern Wei author 贾思勰 who wrote this interesting treatise on household husbandry and farming: http://www.chinaknowledge.de/Literature/Science/qiminyaoshu.html 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomsima Posted August 15, 2021 at 11:24 PM Author Report Share Posted August 15, 2021 at 11:24 PM 嬲 "to be mad at someone, get angry". Seems like it's a Canto only character (nau1), but thought it was pretty funny! 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted August 16, 2021 at 03:31 AM Report Share Posted August 16, 2021 at 03:31 AM I see Baidu Hanyu says it's used in Inner Mongolian and north Shanxi dialect too, "内蒙古以及晋北方言中，意为神气、得意，或志得意满之意。" which is quite different! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calculatrix Posted August 16, 2021 at 06:28 AM Report Share Posted August 16, 2021 at 06:28 AM Cedict and handedict have something like "to tease", and unihan also has "to flirt", which is even more funny for this pictographic constellation. I like it ? 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted August 17, 2021 at 03:18 PM Report Share Posted August 17, 2021 at 03:18 PM 蕤 ruí Saw is as the name of a sleazy actor just been sent to prison for a sexual assault, base meaning 《说文》：“蕤，草木华垂貌 but also the stamen of flower, flowers more generally and a pendant ornament (because like a drooping flower) apparently. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomsima Posted August 17, 2021 at 03:37 PM Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2021 at 03:37 PM From what I can see its used in modern Chinese as in 葳蕤. Thats really interesting, as it has two main meanings: 1. 形容枝葉繁密，草木茂盛的樣子 2. 形容委靡不振，慵懶怠惰 (source) So it sounds like the use of the character 蕤 brings out the nature of the person in question (presumably 吴亦凡) - that is 'luxurious' yet 'indolent, in low spirits'! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Posted August 17, 2021 at 04:15 PM Report Share Posted August 17, 2021 at 04:15 PM 39 minutes ago, Tomsima said: So it sounds like the use of the character 蕤 brings out the nature of the person in question (presumably 吴亦凡) No, this is another one, 田蕤, known more for his stage work apparently. https://baijiahao.baidu.com/s?id=1708329101177946305&wfr=spider&for=pc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
calculatrix Posted August 27, 2021 at 06:55 AM Report Share Posted August 27, 2021 at 06:55 AM Since I am still a newbie characterwise, I get easily impressed with the pictographic storytelling kind. Leisurely browsing through character databases I found these two: 氽 : to float 氼 : to drown Love them. 4 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demonic_Duck Posted August 27, 2021 at 11:50 AM Report Share Posted August 27, 2021 at 11:50 AM @calculatrix those are awesome. But bear in mind that many of those really nice pictographic storytelling type characters aren't in common usage. It looks like 氼 is an obsolete variant of the much more common 溺, and 氽 is dialectical. You might also like some of these: 屎、尿、囚、忐忑、凹凸 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomsima Posted September 19, 2021 at 11:16 PM Author Report Share Posted September 19, 2021 at 11:16 PM 醺 Turned up in 微醺 in reading today. Fairly innocuous and easy to guess the meaning, but found it quite interesting that I've managed to not bump into this character in reading over the years (or not notice bumping into it and saving it for study at least), as I would guess it's certainly not as rare as most of the previous characters posted. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tomsima Posted October 28, 2021 at 02:37 PM Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2021 at 02:37 PM 覡 xi2 This came up in modern reading, but it is a character from 國語：“在男曰覡，在女曰巫“ 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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