Chinese Language Stack Exchange
Chinese Language Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [etymology]

Questions about the origin and history of Chinese words. Use [glyph-origin] for the origin of characters.

Questions about the origin and history of development of Chinese words. Related to but distinct from the category , which is for the graphical form of characters.

More information about how to disambiguate: What's the difference between etymology and glyph origin?

545 questions
28
votes
6 answers

Are there any online etymological dictionaries of Mandarin (not for characters but for spoken words)

tl;dr Are you aware of any dictionaries that explain word etymologies (not merely character etymologies)? Some links/references would be useful. This is actually a collection of related questions, but I thought it would be good to keep them…
Szabolcs
  • 848
  • 9
  • 17
13
votes
3 answers

What is the origin of '日' as a curse word?

I read a bunch of answers on 百度知道 but they are all very vague, indecisive and unauthoritative. 1 为什么人们喜欢用那字，那是因为用的人多，人们大多都没有自己的想法，别人说什么，别人什么说地多，他觉得不用就是落伍了。就这样，时间一长就很多人在说了，而且觉得自己特牛，会用那字。恨不能见谁都说。这不是很幼稚吗。 就像“晕”字，现在人们聊天也老喜欢用，跟那是差不多的。只是骂人跟觉得别人不懂表达的区别。…
Mou某
  • 35,955
  • 9
  • 53
  • 137
13
votes
4 answers

Origin of 乎 as a bound morpheme in words such as 热乎

Here are a couple compound words that end with 乎: 热乎, 温乎, 確乎, 玄乎, 忙乎, 晕乎, 近乎, 热乎乎, 傻乎乎. Is there an understanding of how 乎 became used in these words? Does it have any relation to the classical usage of 乎 as an interrogative marker?
user3823
  • 131
  • 2
12
votes
6 answers

How did 外国人 become 老外?

From Baidu: 老外，是中国人对国外人的一种俗称，类似与老张、老王、老李之类的称呼。称呼中加“老”显得亲热，比如“老乡”“老表”，称呼你老外，就像称呼老张老李那样，大大咧咧，随便亲切。过去中国人对外国人的称呼都是用在第三人称上，只有“老外”可以用于第二人称。 To translate, it says laowai is a colloquial term for foreigners, similar to nicknames such as laozhang and…
杨以轩
  • 7,590
  • 27
  • 49
12
votes
4 answers

Etymology of 汉语

I knew a Chinese woman who taught me a lot about Chinese languages. One of them was about 汉语's etymology. I was told that all parts of these characters had a meaning connected to the History of Chinese language. Well, the story was like this: China…
gustavotkg
  • 385
  • 1
  • 7
11
votes
4 answers

Why is the 会 in 会计 pronounced kuài?

The character 会 has two different pronunciations; usually it is huì but in 会计 it is pronounced kuài. It seems that the latter pronunciation is exclusively used in the "accounting" meaning. How did this one character take on two different…
congusbongus
  • 8,567
  • 34
  • 82
11
votes
3 answers

零售 - Why is the character for "zero" used in the Chinese word for retail?

Why is retail referred to as 零售 in Chinese? Why the combination of "zero" with "sales"? Certainly one expects to make (hopefully many) sales in retail so why is the character for "zero" used here? It just strikes me as such a negative and…
Bjorn
  • 1,386
  • 10
  • 18
11
votes
6 answers

案: why is a bench also a case?

Sorry about the cryptic title. 案 is a character that can mean "bench"/"desk" but it can also mean "(legal) case" or "file": 长形的桌子或架起来代替桌子用的长木板：～子。～板。书～。条～。拍～而起。 提出计划、方法和建议的文件或记录：档～。备～。议～。提～。方～。有～可查。～卷。～牍。 How does this one character come to…
congusbongus
  • 8,567
  • 34
  • 82
11
votes
4 answers

Etymology of 他妈的

I've seen mention of this word a few time. In English it is clear how certain words became swear words; f..., sh.. and damn all have very strong meanings in their literal sense; the former two being vulgar references to bodily functions and the last…
Nate Glenn
  • 231
  • 1
  • 6
11
votes
2 answers

Why is there the character 李 in 行李？

Pleco lists three meanings for the character 李： plum tree plum a surname None seem related to luggage!
Ludi
  • 2,816
  • 1
  • 14
  • 31
9
votes
3 answers

Is the character 年 (or its etymology) related to the mythical beast in Chinese mythology?

Premise: According to the mythology related to the Chinese New Year, a creature called 年 (also referred to as 年兽 — pinyin: nián shòu — 年獸 in Traditional chinese) was a mythical beast that "lived under the sea and in the mountains". This beast used…
Alenanno
  • 6,485
  • 8
  • 42
  • 86
8
votes
2 answers

Etymology of 至关(重要)

至关重要 strikes me as a four-character idiom instead of a Chengyu, and it didn't even make an entry on 现代汉语词典 or ZDic.net. However, that couldn't explain the fact that the specific character combination 至关 is exclusively used in this phrase, and this…
NS.X.
  • 14,899
  • 1
  • 34
  • 61
7
votes
3 answers

What is the morphology or etymology of the word 列车?

This question is inspired from a recent question here about 列车. The question: How is this word formed, and/or where does it come from? (When I am asking this question, I have my own guess: this word is formed by the nominal element 车 referring to…
HYC
  • 133
  • 8
7
votes
3 answers

What is the etymology of 居然?

Usually X+然 has some kind of meaning related to X, especially archaic usage. However I do not see any relationship between 居 "to reside" and "unexpectedly". Are there any historical sources that explain where this expression came from?
HAL
  • 1,084
  • 8
  • 14
7
votes
1 answer

What is the etymology of 氫?

Because this is a relatively recent word, I can't find any etymological information in the sources I'm familiar with. An old text that I found which uses this word is 《太平御覽·卷柏》: 氫鱍成性，終無自伸。 but I have no clue what this sentence has to do with…
HAL
  • 1,084
  • 8
  • 14
1
2 3
…
10 11