No one knows better than I how much I love browsing through my Chinese dictionary – Wenlin – in search of new words and characters. This is one of the quirkier words I found, and, I hope you can appreciate precisely why.
Now, you would think that only the Chinese would be weird enough to stuff two completely contradictory meanings into one relatively tiny two-syllable word. Even if it were possible to distinguish the meanings in context, you'd question whether all the effort was really worth it at all.
"Oh, those chinks", you'd say in a deeply satisfied manner, reminding everyone in your presence how you always thought they were a bunch of no-good communists, who, at one time wanted to take over India (probably still do, come to think of it). After a couple of minutes of your reveling in this superiority complex, someone would tap you on the shoulder and remind you that the word कल (kal) in Hindi meant both 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow', and, subsequently, your ego would proceed to deflate quite like a balloon does when it comes a tad too close to a sharp, not-quite-blunt object.
Not to let anyone feel left out, English is, of course, no exception. The word 'run' has so many different meanings in so many different contexts that, at font size 12, it takes ten sheets of (Letter-sized) paper to print out its definition from the Oxford English Dictionary. I know this from personal experience because an inadvertent mistake has recently caused my pile of scratch paper to grow by ten innocent sheets of paper which didn't know what was coming for them.
Now, you would think that only the Chinese would be weird enough to stuff two completely contradictory meanings into one relatively tiny two-syllable word. Even if it were possible to distinguish the meanings in context, you'd question whether all the effort was really worth it at all.
"Oh, those chinks", you'd say in a deeply satisfied manner, reminding everyone in your presence how you always thought they were a bunch of no-good communists, who, at one time wanted to take over India (probably still do, come to think of it). After a couple of minutes of your reveling in this superiority complex, someone would tap you on the shoulder and remind you that the word कल (kal) in Hindi meant both 'yesterday' and 'tomorrow', and, subsequently, your ego would proceed to deflate quite like a balloon does when it comes a tad too close to a sharp, not-quite-blunt object.
Not to let anyone feel left out, English is, of course, no exception. The word 'run' has so many different meanings in so many different contexts that, at font size 12, it takes ten sheets of (Letter-sized) paper to print out its definition from the Oxford English Dictionary. I know this from personal experience because an inadvertent mistake has recently caused my pile of scratch paper to grow by ten innocent sheets of paper which didn't know what was coming for them.
Labels: English
7 comments
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hmmm, interesting, i don't think i've ever encountered it with the 2nd definition before.
how's hp7? =) -
How do you show the "new entries since last visit" message?
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Using cookies, of course!
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Abhishek is right. It's a bit of JavaScript I added a couple of days ago. It took a lot more work than I expected, to tell the truth, because of an unfortunate invention of mankind known as "time zones" and an even more dreadful invention known as "daylight saving time".
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Hehe, have you try this Chinese dictionary with examples and calligraphy?
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Hahaha
Nice work it is. -
No, I hadn't seen that one before, Bob. Is there anything special about it?
