Thursday, August 14, 2008

curious words

the taiwanese word for "magnet" translates as "greedy iron."

a polite term in chinese ("fafu") for "getting fat" translates as "getting prosperous," or more literally, "emanating/giving off prosperity." prosperous in fat, i guess. or prosperous enough to get fat. . . which no longer means being rich, except in very poor countries.

the taiwanese word for "mantis" is "caogao," translating as "grass monkey."

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