• @Fosheze
    link
    English
    21 month ago

    Anyone know what they are trying to say. I’m genuinely curious what a translator could possibly turn into AIDS.

    • @feedum_sneedson
      link
      3
      edit-2
      1 month ago

      Calqued “hot dog” (热狗) with transliterated “doughnut” (多拿滋), which is like “lots of - get - (to) grow/nourish” if you attempt to parse it as a real Chinese word (character meanings often influence the specific transliteration). The “zī” character (滋) is also used phonetically in the transliteration of AIDS (艾滋病), which is the connection, but I still can’t really see how this happened.

      • @Fosheze
        link
        English
        31 month ago

        Weird, how in the world did doughnut get mistranslated into AIDS?

        • @[email protected]
          link
          fedilink
          English
          21 month ago

          I know that at least in Japan, cheeky translators use funny or obscene English on purpose for free publicity on the internet, like the clothing brand Fuctard. Not sure it applies in this case, though.