They’ve updated it a bunch, but the “Pleco” dictionary is actually based on a Chinese-made dictionary that had originally plenty of old timey examples from communist slogans and such
bendan
joined 2 years ago
Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #19
好久不见
(hǎo jiǔ bù jiàn)
Literally: “good [long time] not see”
Figuratively: “long time no see”
Ever wondered where that seemingly English phrase came from? 
Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #16
木已成舟
(mù yǐ chéng zhōu)
Literally: “wood already become boat”
Figuratively: “what’s done can’t be undone”
Even if you don’t know Chinese, take a look at the first and last characters and you might still be able to make out traces of a tree and a boat. (We don't talk about the middle 2 characters 💀)
yup: tool > technique > work > industry, and branching off into “construction” from somewhere in there
it originally depicted some variant of this but yeah the I-beam definitely helped cement* the continued use of this character
* 
day after pizza (cold) > fresh pizza > day after pizza (reheated)
Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #14
虱多不痒［，债多不愁］
(shī duō bù yǎng [, zhài duō bù chóu])
Literally: “lice many not itch [, debts many not worry]”
Figuratively: “
”
痒 can alternatively be 咬 yǎo “bite”.
Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #13
过分
(guò fèn)
Literally: “[go past] part/portion/allotment”
Figuratively: “excessive; overboard; out of line”
过 is an essential very flexible grammar word, its core meaning is same as “pass”, and the abstract meanings flow from this similarly to English: pass by, pass time, past due, pass through, pass over to, pass away. But wait, there’s more: excessive, fault.
分 is perhaps even spicier, also an essential grammar word. Even if you don’t know any Chinese you should be able to see that the character depicts a knife parting something in two parts. That’s the core meaning: Part! And from that flows: divide, fraction, component, portion, cent, minute, allotment. Some of those are read fēn and some fèn. Oh and don’t ask about 份 lol
Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #12
矛盾
(máo dùn)
Literally: “spear shield”
Figuratively: “contradiction”
Supposed to be from an ancient story where somebody claims to sell both spears that can cut through anything, and shields that can't be broken. Unstoppable force, immovable object.
Nowadays it's just the normal word for contradiction.
I don't know how often it shows up in Marxist jargon, but I suspect 冲突 may be more common there.
Posting neat Chinese phrases whenever I feel like #21
森林
(sēn lín)
Individually: “[lush] [milieu]”
Combined: “forest”
Remember 木 mù “wood”? Well here are some more of them! Both 森 and 林 can (at least could once upon a time) mean “forest” on their own, but their other meanings pull in different directions: 森 towards thick, dense, dark, strict, and 林 towards grove, circle, group.
@ProletarianDictator@hexbear.net