How did some words even get started? If you are familiar with Chinese, you may already know that some characters were based on pictographs. Wikipedia has a good list of some of the characters.
Then there's words or phrases that made me wonder who thought of that. Here is my list:
bicycle 自行車 (T) 自行车(S) [zìxíngchē]
Direct Translation: self operated car
kangaroo 袋鼠 (T/S) [dàishǔ]
Direct Translation: pouch rat
giraffe 長頸鹿(T) 长颈鹿(S) [chángjǐnglù]
Direct Translation: long neck deer
owl 貓頭鷹(T) 猫头鹰(S) [māotóuyīng]
Direct Translation: cat head eagle
computer 電腦(T) 电脑(S) [diànnǎo]
Direct Translation: electric brain
telephone 電話(T) 电话(S) [diànhuà]
Direct Translation: electric spoken word
taxi 出租汽車(T) 出租汽车(S) [chūzū qìchē]
Direct Translation: to rent car
diaper 尿布[T/S) [niàobù]
Direct Translation: to urinate cloth
I like "things" 東西 : Literally east-west. A merchant street runs east-west, so "東西“ is everything from east to west along the stalls.
ReplyDeleteAlso! "about, approximately": 左右 literally left-right. Wave your hand from left to right when giving a measurement and you'll see it follows naturally.
Oh! and another one: 糟糕. It's an expression of extreme woe ("oh this is terrible!"). zāo is "messy, rotten, ruined"; gāo is "cake". I like to think of it as a seven layer cake of awfulness.
ReplyDeletemy wife laughs at me when I say 糟糕 over little things like dropping a cookie on the floor. I'm supposed to save it for really truly awful situations.