Hot answers tagged etymology
13
Rather than saying that 两 is used with nouns, I would say that 两 is used with measure words. If you use any type of measure word with the number 2, use 两. For convenience, I've identified 3 types of measure words:
Standard measure words, e.g. 两个人、两本书、两棵树.
Numbers that are larger than 100, e.g. 两百, 两千三百六十二. 百, 千, and 万 can be seen as a sort of measure word. ...
11
The Story of 没
As other commenters have noted, looking for logic in language is almost always futile. No natural language is logical. But there is a historical logic to language development; even if the existence of a phrase is a historical accident, it's sometimes interesting to see when that "accident" took place, and why.
Such is the case with 没. One ...
11
豚 is pronounced tun2 in Mandarin and tyun4 in Cantonese.
The only word I know which still uses it is 海豚 hai3tun2 "dolphin". The Japanese reading is ton (on), buta (kun), as I'm sure you know.
豚 was the original character (with the meat radical on the left hand side), while 猪 meant a wild pig (which is suggested by its radical). Japanese borrowings from ...
9
The gender neutral form of the term 先生 is an antiquated Chinese title used for addressing a knowledgeable person who is your senior. This person could be a teacher, a principal, a scholar, a professor or a doctor.
This term, which literally means "born (生) before (先)", has been in use for a very long time. Somebody who is born before you would be your ...
8
It's the transliteration of the French word salon. It is equivalent to the English word saloon or salon (alternative spellings). The French word probably is derived from the Italian word salone meaning a large living area in the house or more generally a place where people gather to socialize. In China, the hairdresser's is often an unofficial social ...
7
Wen Lin is an amazing piece of software that has all of the etymological features you are looking for. The central downside is that it is a bit pricey. Most universities have a copy, though, and there may be the opportunity to get some kind of student pricing discount. (Not sure if that applies to your case.)
7
I've only heard it used in describing sexual situations, and wiktionary.org describes its usage as follows:
This idiom usually only refers to a man taking advantage of a woman in a sexual situation.
A typical example would be some creepy guy pinching the flight attendant's backside as she walks past.
There's also a good discussion at ...
7
The answer is in this article:
从"出洋"、"游学"到"留学"——晚清"留学"词源考
It is really a complicated history, but in short: During the Tang Dynasty Japanse students came to China to study. These were called 留学生 in Japan. During the Late Qing Dynasty 留学 was taken over in China and became more and more popular.
7
Reference Materials about the differences between / origins of the 2 confusing words:
from online newspaper - 光明网
conclusion in translation:
one should use "待在" to express "to stay"
from research materials - 中国知网
a Chinese blog containing the full-text of "中国知网" paper
conclusion in translation:
the 2 Chinese characters are different in meaning
...
7
先生 is an address with long history. But it is important that this address is only for male during a very very long time. Here are part of them (may have relevance to this question):
Original meaning is literal, first born. 《诗·大雅·生民》：诞弥厥月，先生如达。 朱熹 集传：“先生，首生也。 Later extended as father or elder brother. 《仪礼·有司》：其先生之脀，折胁一。 郑玄 注：先生，长兄弟。
Older and learned ...
7
Yes. It is an issue. But 姐 or 大姐 is not very appropriate sometimes.
You can use 姐 or 大姐 to call a lady who is elder than you. But they'd better be not very young.
To call a young lady, 美女 is popular now in cities, though maybe they are not really very beautiful.
If there is some context, like to call a waitress, just use 服务员 or other address expressing ...
7
Nope. The radical was simplified from 玉 (jade), originally referring to a polished sphere of jade. 求 is the phonetic component.
For reference, Baxter's Old Chinese reconstruction has 求 *grju, and 球 *grju. In this particular case, 求 has remained a good phonetic for three millennia!
The sense of 'sounding stone made of jade' can be seen in the Kangxi ...
6
My understanding is that it is originally a military usage. Since the pronunciation yī is easily mistaken for 七 qī in radio transmissions etc, yāo is substituted in the interest of aural clarity.
This usage is not found in Taiwan (although I can't speak for the Taiwanese military).
This question has been answered before.
6
I think it's just a folklore, because every time I read this story, I can't find the source of the floklore cited there. I never treat this stroy seriously.
The oracle form of the character "年" is:(note: one oracle character may have different but similar shapes, because characters were not standardized at all in that times)
The upper part looks like a ...
6
Is this story true?
Sorry, but no. If it helps you remember how to write the characters, then knock yourself out. In fact, there is a whole book of such mnemonics (as well as an unfavorable review of said book, followed by a fascinating discussion in the comments)
If not, what's its etymology?
That depends on what you mean by etymology (a term often ...
6
I can only provide a partial answer:
Many of the characters used in the names of non-Han ethnic groups were originally derogatory. After the founding of the PRC, the government conceptualized New China as a 多民族国家, and they changed many of the characters that were perceived as derogatory. I don't know if this process started under the 国民党, as you suggest, ...
5
Not sure about the story, but to answer the difference between "汉语" and "中文".
Literally, "汉语" means "the language of Han Chinese", while "中文" means "the language of China". As defined in Wikipedia, they are interchangeable terms.
"汉语" expresses the ethnic root of the language, as it may be created or first widely used by Han Chinese. There are other minor ...
5
A personal experience, most etymology explanations of characters are not definitive. Explanations can be derived from theoretic work or maybe just personal imagination.
That been said, I searched in google and found:
Figures on how 奴 as written in ancient and modern times. Link from hkbu.edu.hk. Now, please look at the figure below, which is 奴 in its 小篆 ...
5
As you may know, "Organic" in your case is originally a chemical term and its noun-"Organ" means "a collection of tissues joined in structural unit to serve a common function" from Wikipedia. Once the chemists incorrectly believed that "organic compound" could only be produced by lifes. I think this is how "organic" comes from "organ". I don't find the exact ...
5
In the mainland of China (I don't know how people in Taiwan use this character, sorry), people usually use "yao" when reading numerical serial numbers, digit by digit. One typical application is the phone number. In almost all other cases, only "yi" should be used.
Why can it mean "one"?
The character for "yao" is "幺". Which originally (in classic Chinese) ...
5
I found the ABC Etymological Dictionary of Old Chinese to be a great source if you're interested in the evolution of the prounciation and meaning of Chinese words. It avoids etymology of character structure though; for that, I would suggest chineseetymology.org.
5
二 (èr) is used (with nouns), if you are talking about their order, but if you are counting how many, 两 (liăng) is used (also with nouns). Stated concisely:
两 (liăng) is a cardinal number, as in, 两个 (liăng-ge) 'two of something.'
二 (èr) is an ordinal number, as in, 第二个 (dì èr-ge) 'the second thing.'
Perhaps more common in speech are the cardinal numbers, ...
5
For English technical term that does not yet have a translation in Chinese, maybe the first translation that got popular would be accepted.
The translation is done by the person who need to use the translation. Sometimes the original English term or explanation with be also noted before the term is generally accepted. Terms are usually translated by the ...
5
On http://ctext.org/dictionary.pl?if=en you can see how a character evolved, the simplified and traditional characters. For example for 目.
Another similar website is http://www.chineseetymology.org/CharacterEtymology.aspx . Their result for 目.
Zdict is completely in Chinese: http://www.zdic.net/zd/zi/ZdicE7Zdic9BZdicAE.htm
Here is another website in ...
5
It should be 放我一马. 马 here refers to the rider rather than the horse itself. It's from 三国演义.
出自三国演义。赤壁之战，曹操大败，欲从华容道逃走，被关羽逮个正着，立马堵住去路。关羽念及往日旧恩，让开马位，使曹操得以逃脱。“放你一马”，比喻手下留情。即出于此。
Source: http://zhidao.baidu.com/question/2156078.html
English version of the story (wikipedia)
5
I believe it is understood throughout China, but it may sound 'Southern' to Northerners and it wouldn't be their word of choice when they want to express the same meaning.
There are two possible origins:
According to Baidu Baike, 三八 means 三八妇女节 (International Women's Day on March 8th), which is extended to refer to women in a derogatory sense, most ...
5
Taiwanese like to use the word "三八" to describe female behavior bordering on craziness such as frivolous actions or doing reckless things. It appears that the word originates from the Cantonese or Minnan dialect, but in reality it is not. In fact, "三八" is the authentic Central Plains vocabulary.
刘福根, author of 《汉语詈词研究》 combed through "A Short History of ...
5
As recorded in Baidu, this unique pronunciation of “和” as "hàn" actually originates from the Old Beijing dialect. Extracted from the blog article titled 台湾人为嘛把“和”读作hàn?, it says the following:
1945年10月台湾光复，日语的“国语”黯然退出，台胞急着要回复祖国的语文，要说国语，要认汉字。
...
4
零 means "a part (fraction,fragment) of something" here. Some examples for this meaning:
零钱 small change such as RMB1, 2 or 5 (depending on how much you are talking); It also has another meaning.
I.e,you buy something at a total price of 8.3,and you give one note of 100 to the cashier, so the cashier needs to return you 91.7. in Chinese,we also call ...
4
Good question and a little complex to answer. Previous answers seem good, and I want to make a conclusion based on them.
Basically, 两 and 二 mean two, but either of them are used in some other cases, where they are not interchangeable.
When counting (with single character), only 二 is used. You would hear "一二三四，二二三四..." as a melody when some is doing ...
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