maxiewawa

The Chinese version of the idiom “one size fits all” is 一刀切 or literally “to cut with one knife”. I like the Chinese better. “One size fits all” is rarely used to describe a policy, or technique in a positive light, and the Chinese way gets this across.

I came across a Chinese expression the other day. It goes like this:

一分钱一分货

You might translate it like this:

You get one cent’s worth if you pay one cent.

It’s saying that if you pay very little for something, its quality isn’t very good. An equivalent expression in English:

You get what you pay for.

But I prefer the much more colourful:

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.

An extremely low amount of money is often referred to as “peanuts”, which is where we get this expression. Or perhaps the other way around, I’m not sure.

Crimes against humanity, as defined by the International Court are:

particularly odious offences in that they constitute a serious attack on human dignity or grave humiliation or a degradation of one or more human beings.

The above is taken from Wikipedia.

The Chinese is “反人道罪” or literally “Crimes against humanitarianism”, which makes more sense to me.

Today’s word of the day is “bookworm”. It describes someone who reads a look of books.

The Chinese word for “bookworm” is 书虫, literally “bookworm”. The Japanese is 本の虫, again, literally “bookworm”.

Coincidence?

Mothball is both a noun and a verb.

The noun refers to a small ball, actually a kind of poison. You put them near clothes and they stop mould and moths from destroying them.

They smell quite bad, so you usually only use them for clothes that you aren’t going to use for a long time.

Over time the word “mothball” has gained another meaning. If you don’t plan on using something for a long time, of if you are abandoning it forever, you are “mothballing” it.

So:

Germany to mothball all 17 of its nuclear reactors (The German government plans to stop making nuclear power)

In June, the US space agency, Nasa, will mothball its whole fleet of space shuttles (NASA will stop using its space shuttles)

Don’t Mothball Your Old Car, Repair It For Less (You can repair your car, which is cheaper than selling it)

Obviously, the word of the day for today is in Chinese. Let me give you the context, and you can decide what the English word is. Let 悬赏 = x.

There has been some unrest in a Chinese town, and the police have offered a (x) of anything between 5000 and 10 000 RMB for information.

Have you decided on a translation? I’d go for “reward” or “cash reward” in this situation.

Here‘s some more on the story, from Reuters Africa.

I have an app on my iPad that gives me words of the day. It’s utterly ridiculous. The only words that it gives are in English, and are so obscure that they are never used in daily conversation. I’ve never even heard of most of them. To illustrate my point, here’s today’s word: pullulate. ‘Nuff said. As I type, I can see that my automatic spell checker has a little red line under ‘pullulate’, indicating it hasn’t heard of it either.

As you might be able to see, my blog has been a bit sparse of late, so I’ve resolved to publish a post a day (a little optimistic?) outlining my word of the day. Most will probably be English words, all will be accompanied by some explanation (always in English).

Today’s word is scalp.

It’s both a noun and a verb.

As a noun, it refers to the part of your skin on top of your head that hair grows out of.

Some Native American tribes used to remove the scalp of their enemies, sometimes while they were still alive, and keep them. Often warriors would keep scalps with them, to show others how many enemies they had defeated. I think that this was when “scalp” became a verb, meaning “to remove the scalp off an enemy”. Wikipedia has quite a gruesome (black and white) photo of someone without their scalp. Nowadays, when you defeat someone in a way that makes you proud, or is particularly symbolic, you are often said to have their “scalp”.

I came across “scalp” the other day, with regard to Abu Bakar Bashir, an Indonesian muslim and convicted terrorist leader.

The guilty verdict for Abu Bakar Bashir this week is the latest in a series of scalps for Indonesian counter-terrorism authorities…

The Indonesian government didn’t remove his scalp, the word is still used figuratively.

When someone defeats someone else, particularly if the winner feels very proud about it, they are often said to have the “scalp” of the other person.

A quick Google search gives us a few examples:

Bashir Is Another Scalp for Indonesian Authorities (I’ve just mentioned this article).

Australians Claim Ivorian Scalp (The Australian football team defeated the Cote d’Ivorian football team. If you didn’t know, the Australian team isn’t very good.)

Carlton v West Coast Another sporting article. It mentions “top-four scalps”. If a team has a “top-four scalp” it means that it has already defeated one of the four best teams.