How to say "mistletoe" in 中文？

Language Learning Chinese
1

I tried google and xuezhongwen.net, but the I have so far is something that translates as “parasitic plant” =\

Also, how familiar are Taiwanese and other Asians in general with the concept of mistletoe during X’mas season?

2

When I was in paris with my SO I showed her Mistle toe and explained to her how we shot it out of trees and the tradition regarding xmas with the kisses… She had no clue… Good luck on this one…

3

The ABC Comprehensive, the Far East Practical and the Oxford E-C C-E dictionaries all give the answer as 槲寄生 (hújìshēng). However I’d rate the chances of your average Taiwanese person recognising this as very slim.

4

Note that jìshēng means parasite and hú
槲
is a species of oak. I don’t believe “oak parasite” is a common Chinese word in the least.

5

I am sorry to say that we don’t have concept of mistletoe. I am Taiwaness, but I don’t know how to say mistletoe in 中文. If I have had not been to US, I think I would never know what the mistletoe is. I will try to find this out for you.

6

Hi Danny, and welcome to Forumosa! :slight_smile:

Yeah, my better third (my Taiwanese wife) has heard of hu2ji4sheng1 but only in the context of translations or explanations of mistletoe; like Danny says, it’s not a standard part of the vocabulary here, so most locals won’t have any idea what you’re talking about.

Oh, I found that Wiki Chinesegives hu2ji4sheng1 but also alternate names of 北寄生 bei3ji4sheng1、柳寄生 liu2ji4sheng1 and 寄生子 ji4sheng1zi. :idunno: Has anyone ever heard those?

7

Hi Dragonbones,

Thank you for the greeting.
hu2ji4sheng1 but also alternate names of 北寄生 bei3ji4sheng1、柳寄生 liu2ji4sheng1 and 寄生子 ji4sheng1zi. Those words are just the name of the plant, but we are not able to relate those name to mistletoe. I think if you want to explain the meaning of mistletoe to your chinese friend, you should describe the tranditional culture of mistletoe. I think the better way to say mistletoe in Chinese is zhuang1 shi4 hua1 裝飾花 for Christmas ( which means decoration flower for Christmas) or ji2 xiang2 hua1 吉祥花 for Christmas (which means lucky flower for Christmas)