• Hegar@kbin.social
    1352·
    2 年前

    Alas, it does not.

    企鵝 is penguin. By itself, 企 means to stand on tiptoes, or to expect something. It’s also the first character in 企業, business. Sometimes business is abbreviated as just 企.

    But “commitment” in English doesn’t literally mean ‘commercial glove noun’ just because ‘com’ can be short for commercial, and mit means glove.

    • RQG
      582·
      2 年前

      Well at least the world is still a vast hellscape. Unless you got a good point to make against that too.

      • Cleverdawny@lemm.ee
        205·
        2 年前

        In spite of all of our problems, this is the first time in the history of modern civilization when we have gone 70 years without a major war between world powers. Every year, fewer people lack running water and electricity around the world. While climate change is a problem, emissions are projected to peak in the next few years and decline thereafter. Inflation is going back down, unemployment is still low in most places, and fears of a recession have cooled off.

        It ain’t heaven, but it’s better than it could be, and many things are trending in a positive manner.

        • Ricaz@lemmy.ml
          3·
          2 年前

          I, too, am tired of the constant pessimism. Almost everything is improving all the time.

          On Lemmy it seems the biggest crisis is Google trying to make money off user data (as they always have been). Some people legitimately need to go outside and stop measuring world health by what mass media is currently telling them.

          • Cleverdawny@lemm.ee
            31·
            2 年前

            If you’re using a free product, you’re either working with a non profit that survives off of donations or YOU are the product that this company markets to businesses. Nature of the beast

        • OrteilGenou
          2·
          2 年前

          I believed that we went from Napoleon to WW1 without a major conflict but holy crap I guess not

      • Hegar@kbin.social
        10·
        2 年前

        Ugh… it’s business. Chinese does that sometimes. 業 means line of business, trade or occupation.

        • irmoz@reddthat.com
          4·
          2 年前

          And I’m still waiting on the second character of penguin. I’m guessing that’s Chinese doing its thing again?

          • salty_mariner
            10·
            2 年前

            The second character, 鵝, means goose. So 企鵝 is literally something like, “standing on tiptoes goose”. But no one would look at it that closely, to everyone it’s just a penguin.

  • Green_Bay_Guy@midwest.socialEnglish
    31·
    2 年前

    You could do this all day with Vietnamese. Kangaroo is bag mouse. Orca is assassin fish, giraffe is a long-necked deer. Etc.

    • enthusiasticamoeba@lemmy.ml
      19·
      2 年前

      Dutch has a lot of good ones!

      Hippo: Nile Horse (nijlpaard)

      Leopard: Lazy Horse (luipaard)

      Sea urchin: Sea Hedgehog (zee egel)

      Seal: Sea Dog (zeehond)

      Skunk: Stink Animal (stinkdier)

      Turtle: Shield Toad (Schildpad)

      Slug: Naked Snail (Naaktslak)

      Porcupine: Spiky Pig (Stekelvarken)

      Edit: formatting

      • lugal@sopuli.xyz
        10·
        2 年前

        Leopard: Lazy Horse (luipaard)

        I’ve looked it up and apparently leo is lion and part is leopard or panther. So it’s a lion leopard. English and Dutch have the same etymology, and German too, all your examples are the same in German.

      • Pinklink@lemm.ee
        5·
        2 年前

        While this is kind of fun, it’s also kind of frustrating. Like when Merriam Webster tries to define a word for me by using the word. Frustrating: having a quality or qualities that frustrates.

      • redcalcium@lemmy.institute
        3·
        2 年前

        So this is why Indonesian names for hippo, sea urchin and seal are weird af. They are actually direct translation from their dutch names!

    • saltnotsugar@lemm.ee
      8·
      2 年前

      Wow that’s a big bouncing animal! Kind of reminds me of-
      “A mouse. Like a big mouse with a bag.”
      …Good idea sir.

    • DrQuint@lemm.ee
      1·
      2 年前

      Somewhere, out there, there’s a language that does NOT have any funny details like this. Those who speak it have the maximum enjoyment potential when learning out.

    • NotSkynet@lemmy.ca
      16·
      2 年前

      Goose is literally just “I” and “Bird”

      Bussiness iBird

      Sounds like a new apple drone that spys on you

      • nudny ekscentryk@szmer.info
        21·
        2 年前

        That’s not how this works. 我 in 鹅 is a phonetic particle, implying yi, (y)e or wo pronunciation (like in 義/义, 俄 and 哦 respectively). 鸟 is a semantic particle, indicating a bird, like in 鳳/凤, 鷹/鹰 or 鴨/鸭

  • saltnotsugar@lemm.ee
    6·
    2 年前

    Now I’m picturing penguins having nonstop business meetings about fish and vendor relations in Antarctica.

  • _number8_
    89·
    2 年前

    wtf do you mean ‘but remember’. i hate this stupid setup. that has nothing to do with anything