Ed Jaggard's Chinese Words for August 1998
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Sunday
Å]¤è
mo2 fang1
Rubik's cube
mo2 - wizard; witch; demon; devil
fang1 - square; "cube"
When I saw the Chinese for Rubik's cube, I had to laugh to myself. What an appropriate name. Years ago I spent hours with this devilish little puzzle in vain attempts at solving it. I never did! Someday when I am retired and have many hours of leisure, I intend to finally solve it. For those of you who have successfully mastered the "devil" cube, my sincerest congratulations. Unless you did like my brother-in-law who took the cube into the bathroom and came out with a completed cube. On close inspection, we noticed that he had rearranged the little colored pieces on the puzzle making it look like he had solved it!!
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August 23, 1998
Rubik's Cube Java Applet
Solve it online!!!
Rubik's Cube Links
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Wednesday
¥W²ª
ao1 hen2
dent (as on a car)
ao1 - 1. indented; an indentation; a hollow 2. concave
hen2 - a mark; a scar; a trace
Here is a fairly simple word that doesn't always pop out of the common dictionary. It refers to a dent like one which you might find on your car after a trip to the supermarket. I guess the English word "nick" would also be appropriately translated by this Chinese word. |
August 19, 1998
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Sunday
¯ºì¤
xiao4 li4
kookaburra; laughing jackass
xiao4 - to laugh; laugh
li4 - a type of bird
The kookaburra, or laughing jackass, is a kingfisher (Dacelo novaeguineae) of Australia. It is roughly the size of a crow and it gets its name, laughing jackass, from its call which resembles loud laughter.
Finding this word was a small victory for me. I've been loading a database with all the characters in the Unicode database. This character did not have a meaning associated with it (ì¤). I often browse through my Chinese-English and English-Chinese dictionaries looking for new words to add to my Chinese word database. Today I found this word which happens to use a character for which I had no meaning. |
August 9, 1998
UNICODE info on U+9D17
My source of info on characters not found in my hardback dictionaries
Laughing Kookaburra
A drawing and some info
Click on the Laughing Kookaburra
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Thursday
°¨§ÀĦ
ma3 wei3 zao3
sargassum; sargasso
ma3 - horse
wei3 - tail
zao3 - alga; algae
Sargassum, or sargasso, is a genus of brown algae also known as gulfweed. It stays afloat by means of air bladders creating a type of floating ecosystem upon which vast numbers of sea animals depend for their existence.
The Sargasso Sea in the western North Atlantic contains vast amounts (estimated 7 million tons!!!) of two species of sargassum. Check out the links to the right for more info on sargassum and the Sargasso Sea.
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August 6, 1998
An Image of the Sargasso Sea with some text
Sargasso Sea - Where the Eels Meet
Marine Plants & Algae - Sargassum
Phaeophyta: Life History and Ecology
This link has good info on sargassum and the Sargasso Sea.
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