Comments on: 10 Really Interesting and Cool Chinese Characters

By: NielDLR

NielDLR — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 05:17:00 +0000

Hey Q,

wow. That is awesome! I missed that. Excellent excellent find. Makes me all happy inside. This is why I love Chinese characters!

By: Q Yearsley

Q Yearsley — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 05:12:00 +0000

Interesting note about 囟 (xin4). In the 說文解字 dictionary, under the entry for 兒 (simplified 儿) it says: 孺子也。从儿，象小兒頭囟未合。 Meaning, the top of the character 兒 is the yet un-closed fontanel of a child’s skull.

By: Giuseppe Romanazzi

Giuseppe Romanazzi — Mon, 18 Feb 2013 09:58:00 +0000

“Hatu” is the name of one of the most commonly known condoms in Italy. Can it help to remember the pronunciation of 凹凸?

By: K C

K C — Mon, 24 Dec 2012 06:10:00 +0000

Seconding Olle’s comment. I have seen 廿 and 卅 used in the context of calendars. That way all the days can be written out in two characters. Have never seen 卌. Reminds me of 俩仨 (more PRC, seldom in Taiwan, saw “仨人” as a song title with ruby text in Taipei) .

By: sheenky

sheenky — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 08:31:00 +0000

Yes. you’re absolutely right. For Chinese, if we just translate the single word, optimism, we would say it means 乐观主义 Because “-ism” is usually translated as 主义. But in some specific sentences, you’ll find that just 乐观 for optimism is also OK. To choose 乐观 or 乐观主义 depends on the situation, which is exactly what you’ve said. By the way, I’m a Chinese based in Tianjin. I find the website from your sina weibo. Glad to share language with you. :)

By: NielDLR

NielDLR — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 08:11:00 +0000

Hi Alex, sorry for late reply.

See my response to sheenky:
http://confusedlaowai.com/2012/08/10-interesting-cool-chinese-characters/#comment-639212993

By: NielDLR

NielDLR — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 08:10:00 +0000

Hi Sheenky,

technically you are right. If you want to directly translate optimism it would be 乐观主义, but I always find Mandarin suffixes awkward like that.

That’s why I checked out example sentences for “optimism” on Jukuu, iChaCha and nciku to see how it is used.

Most of the sentences use only 乐观 to express optimism. See this search for example:
http://jukuu.com/search.php?q=optimism

I think adding the 主义 works better in formal circumstances or when you are actually talking about optimism as a thing on its own. The ideology. It seems in Chinese we can use only 乐观 to refer to someones “optimism” although the dictionary would say 乐观 only translates to “optimistic”.

I hope I’m getting my point across?

By: sheenky

sheenky — Mon, 03 Sep 2012 08:02:00 +0000

Yes, of course. That’s exactly the definition of optimism in the English-Chinese dictionary.

By: NielDLR

NielDLR — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 08:10:00 +0000

Hi Lily,

thanks for the comment.

囧 is a definitely a favourite of mine too. Very expressive!

By: Lily Zhang

Lily Zhang — Sat, 01 Sep 2012 21:53:00 +0000

my favorite is 冏. the word had a meaning (a kind of plant) before it began to be used as an emoticon, and now also officially means “frustrated, sad”. i first came across it in the title of the 2010 movie 人在冏途 (which is hilarious, btw)