Funny / interesting Chinese compound words? Let's make a list

Have you noticed how some Chinese compound words are hilarious? Since the Chinese stopped creating new characters, they have to use current characters to make up new nouns or verbs, and these are often brilliantly obvious and therefore unintentionally funny. Stuff like:

Chewing gum = 口香糖 (mouth smells-nice candy)
Cocktail = 雞尾酒 (chicken’s tail drink)
Oral sex = 口交 (mouth exchange/make friends)
Computer mouse = 滑鼠 (sliding/slippery mouse)

owl = 貓頭鷹 (cat head hawk)
koala = 無尾熊 (no tail bear)
giraffe = 長頸鹿 (long neck deer)

I find these compounds easy to remember because they’re so logical, so let’s try and share our favorites. There must be alot for animals!

Hmm… The list would be quite the hefty tome considering most words in Chinese are compounds of some sort. Some of these I think have to do with translation. If the first computer mouse was called 老鼠 it wouldn’t make much sense, so someone came up with a clever way of preserving the mousiness of it while making it more logical.

On that note, it’s important to remember that animal names are typically much more broad categories rather than specific animals. Llamas and zebras are both kinds of horses (草泥

, even though that’s not its real name, and 斑

); squirrels and hamsters are both types of mice (松

and 天竺

). Etc.

I gave my family gifts of stamps with their Chinese zodiac symbols but there were a few unexpected twists. My dad: “You got it wrong. I’m a rat, not a mouse.” My aunt and uncle: “We’re goats, not sheep!” Aiyo. Chabuduo la.

Anyway. Vehicles are a fun one. Steam car, fire car, electric car, row car, foot-step car, manpower car, mechanical foot-step car, pushing car…

Yes there’s alot, hence I was just looking for particularly funny or memorable ones really, particularly translations from English.

草泥馬 is llama? Only seen that used as a euphemism for “f**k your Mom”, even my Chrome pop-up dictionary (Zhongwen Chinese) doesn’t have the real meaning.

My bad, that’s an alpaca, not a llama. (I don’t know the difference!) Its real Chinese name should be 羊駝 – sheep camel. But some clever Chinese web users who were blocked from swearing chose the alpaca as a mascot and named it the 草泥馬 (grass-mud horse), a near homonym for the three-word swear. It started as a sort of ironic thing in China, but somehow spread to Taiwan where it’s caught on as an acceptable name for the furry guys. If you see llama/alpaca toys anywhere they’ll almost definitely be labeled caonima instead of yangtuo. It’s just cuter I guess.

My dictionary doesn’t have alpaca either - just lists it as an alternative to 操你媽。

Interesting story, thanks. Didn’t realize it had spread to Taiwan but yes after googling it appears it’s the new name. For example, this alpaca farm: aircoffee.com.tw/index.php?id=7

Actually this one isn’t a recent development. Chinese started using the word 交 to mean sex a long time ago.

ah ha, interesting, only heard it in the context of 交朋友.

Example sentence of usage for sex? (See, this is the good stuff the textbooks don’t tell you about)

[quote=“aphasiac”]ah ha, interesting, only heard it in the context of 交朋友.

Example sentence of usage for sex? (See, this is the good stuff the textbooks don’t tell you about)[/quote]

For starters, sex is called 性交 (Xingjiao)
Intercourse is called 交媾 (Jiaogou)
Breeding is called 交配 (Jiaopei)
Mixed breeding/interracial or group sex is called 雜交 (Zajiao)

In old and classical Chinese texts, the word 交通 (traffic/transportation) also meant sex. In the Buddhist text 百喻經 (Bai Yu Jing), translated in the late 5th century, there’s a story that goes:

[quote]昔有一人,與他婦通,交通未盡,夫從外來,即便覺之。

There was a dude, who had sex with a woman married to some other dude. One time, before they were done “trafficking,” her husband came back and found out about them.[/quote]

Well, the translation isn’t word by word, but I think I captured the spirit.

another Buddhist text 出曜經 (Cu Yao Jing), translated in early 5th century:

[quote]吾無遠慮,遭遇惡緣,與咒術女人交通,意識欲歸,便化為驢。

Dude, I was being so shortsighted, and shit happened to me. I “trafficked” with a freaking witch, for realsies. I wanted to come back, but I was turn into an ass… again, for realsies. [/quote]

Now, think about names and nouns like 交通大學, 交通部長, 交通工具, 交通號誌… :roflmao:

sorry, I’m being immature…

義交大隊

義交大隊[/quote]

oh, the humanity :roflmao:

while we are on the subject… why Chinese never thought of inventing punctuation is a mystery… why people don’t use them now is an even bigger mystery.

↑房租必須是ㄧ次性交一年的↑ :laughing: That had to be intentional, right?

Hah, you see this all the time in China (and sometimes in Taiwan) when people don’t think before they start moving their mouths.

Disposable is 一次性 on the other side of the strait… lots of interesting results from that translation.

We had a text book in grad school called “Translation as a Purposeful Activity” by Christiane Nord. The most unfortunate jiantizi translation was 翻譯為目的性行為 @_@

[quote=“Hokwongwei”]

We had a text book in grad school called “Translation as a Purposeful Activity” by Christiane Nord. The most unfortunate jiantizi translation was 翻譯為目的性行為 @_@[/quote]

XD

Would it be safe to say that Chinese is a language that is generally more “crude” in nature?

One more compound word off the top of my head:

痴呆症 - chi1dai1zheng4 = foolish, dull-minded disease (dementia)

I think there are a lot of health related conditions that are similarly unpleasant to the English ear if you do a direct translation from the Chinese characters.

Also, I came across this sentence in today’s 自由时报:

I have read a lot of news articles in my life, however I have don’t think I have ever come across an English news article that describes the situation in as much detail as that. I imagine that in the UK this would be reported as “…discovered a used contraceptive in the bin…”. I highly doubt it would be described as “…discovered a sperm filled condom in the bin…”

It would be interesting to see how the English language Taiwanese media handles these in their translating/ reporting. (goes off to look at the Typo Times website)

Taipei Times doesn’t care about a story of that nature unless the murder is a KMT politician or the murderee is a green politician.

I think that (despite what we might think?) Taiwanese society in general just has a more open attitude toward sex. Hearing my sisters-in-law discussing sex loudly with their mom in a tiny living room while their dad watched TV was a real eye-opener.

maybe it also has to do with the fact that the character 精 has so many other meanings which tones down the sperminess of that phrase…

[quote=“Milkybar_Kid”]Would it be safe to say that Chinese is a language that is generally more “crude” in nature?

One more compound word off the top of my head:

痴呆症 - chi1dai1zheng4 = foolish, dull-minded disease (dementia)

I think there are a lot of health related conditions that are similarly unpleasant to the English ear if you do a direct translation from the Chinese characters.

Also, I came across this sentence in today’s 自由时报:

I have read a lot of news articles in my life, however I have don’t think I have ever come across an English news article that describes the situation in as much detail as that. I imagine that in the UK this would be reported as “…discovered a used contraceptive in the bin…”. I highly doubt it would be described as “…discovered a sperm filled condom in the bin…”

It would be interesting to see how the English language Taiwanese media handles these in their translating/ reporting. (goes off to look at the Typo Times website)[/quote]

An English article probably wouldn’t use the word “sperm,” but I could see them saying something like “A condom was found at the scene with traces of semen.”

That’s a reasonable point. It’s ok to say things like 方便 or even 大便 in a Chinese headline because each character is not inherently vulgar in and of itself. But I’d be surprised to see 屎 or 糞 in a headline.

Back to the topic hand, here are some more of my favorite compounds:

diabetes - 糖尿病 (sugar urine sickness)
vampire - 吸血鬼 (blood suck ghost)
take drugs - 吸毒 (suck/inhale poison)
transvestite/ladyboy - 人妖 (person monster/devil)

Those last 2 are pretty “emotionally loaded” aren’t they. I wonder, in English do we have many new words with built-in negative baggage like those? I can only think of “pirate” - a term used to try and link copyright infringers with the dangerous criminals of the past.