Chinese origin for 'shiny'??
POSTED BY: DarkJester
UPDATED: Friday, February 1, 2008 12:30
VIEWED: 19569
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Quote:
Originally posted by chronicthehedgehog:
I'm over in England and I used shiny as an expression for something being cool a long time before firefly came out. It's not a hugely common phrase, but it certainly exists.
With Joss' love of England, maybe he picked it up in his time over here?
Good point. Maybe it's his adaptation of "Brilliant!" for anything good?
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The Chinese origin for "shiny" may be "piao liang," which means "pretty" or "beautiful." The "liang" part means "bright" or "luminous" or...(drum roll) SHINY.
Lots of crossover with languages that makes studying languages fun. "No can do," came from Chinese immigrants in the Old West saying, "Bu neng zuo"--it's a word for word translation.
And then there are English words like "skosh," meaning a little bit, which is derived from the Japanese, "sukoshi."
Shiny may be it's own cool word, or it could be related to Chinese. The love shiny things goes way back, and to all cultures, practically. Even ravens like shiny things. :)
Take care,
I.
Ivan Chan Studio: Invite Beauty: www.ivanchan.com
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shiny is an expression (with basically the same meaning) in swedish too..
of course its not "shiny" its "strålande"... wich COULD be translated into both radient and shiny... but i prefer shiny ;)
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Quote:
Originally posted by twxpda:
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Quote:
Originally posted by OddballE8:
shiny is an expression (with basically the same meaning) in swedish too..
of course its not "shiny" its "strålande"... wich COULD be translated into both radient and shiny... but i prefer shiny ;)
Hmm, "strålande" looks remarkably like the Dutch "stralend", which also means 'radiant' and 'beautiful' in metaphorical sense ("een stralende dag" = a beautiful day). I don't think you can really say "Stralend!" though, in the meaning of Firefly "Shiny!"
P.S. The transliteration of "shiny" in Dutch would actually be "schijnig". From the same verb 'to shine' <-> 'schijnen'; as in "De zon schijnt = the sun shines", "Sunshine <-> zonneschijn", etc. "Schijnig", though its use is archaic, means "happy, joyful". In that sense it's really close to "Shiny!"
--
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here." -- Simon Tam
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