Skaters' nicknames

[Bluebonnet]

I have a question. After Takahashi's SP (see the link below):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81EFqQvUnd0

At 3'57", a sign held by a fan said, "色男". It must be a good word in Japanese. What is it? My first reaction was, "yak! 好色的男人!" which google translated into 'Lecherous men'

 

[skatinginbc]

I have a question. After Takahashi's SP (see the link below):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81EFqQvUnd0

At 3'57", a sign held by a fan said, "色男". It must be a good word in Japanese. What is it? My first reaction was, "yak! 好色的男人!" which google translated into 'Lecherous men'

Yak! It does sound bad in Chinese, a term befitting the hardcover of a porn. Well, it is in fact a Japanese slang Iro otoko (色男) meaning "a ladies’ man" or a handsome man (美男子, びなんし).

 

[Blades of Passion]

Personally, I'm happy with Meryl & Charlie and Scott & Tessa. In each case, there are only 3 syllables. Voir & Marlie just sound like something in some on-line computer game to me. The Voir have attacked! Get out your Marlie to repel them!

I'm casting my "Die Fledermaus" spell. Will your "Hip Hip Chin Chin" be enough to save you?

Let's get all Voldemort vs. Dumbledore up in here.

 

[100yen]

I'm casting my "Die Fledermaus" spell. Will your "Hip Hip Chin Chin" be enough to save you?

Let's get all Voldemort vs. Dumbledore up in here.

 

[seniorita]

Stupid.

Ha...And I thought you liked me.

 

[skatinginbc]

Just want to say I adore Hanyu's name....I actually think his name reflect this style and strength in skating.

From the literal meaning of the word, I would interpret his name this way

羽 Feather - Feather, lightness who capable of take flight, take shelter, keep warm.
It represent dreams, wishes, complexity combining beauty and function, evolutionary transcendence connect the earth to the sky.
生 Birth - Birth/Born of, or create. A begin to something, creation of something, catalyst for change.
結 Ties - gathering, cultivate and finish up something
弦 String be it a musical or bow string, breed musicality that capable being weaponry, characterized by precision, flexibility, tension, power, dexterity (skill, grace, cleverness/smartness), suppleness, strength and weakness at the same time, but powerful when unleashed with precision, intention, smart ideas and thoughts.

I though actually reflect the style of skating perfectly. I wonder if his parents sought advice from the monks at the temple that many Japanese parents often do.

The original meaning of 結 is "to tie or connect" and 弦 is symbolic of music. So Yuzuru (結弦, ゆづる) can be interpreted as the ability to connect to the music or tie skating to the music. His surname Hanyū (羽生, はにゅう "feather-born") gives an image of skating/jumping light as a feather. He got my vote as having the most fitting name for a figure skater.

 

[burntBREAD]

The original meaning of 結 is "to tie or connect" and 弦 is symbolic of music. So Yuzuru (結弦, ゆづる) can be interpreted as the ability to connect to the music or tie skating to the music. His surname Hanyū (羽生, はにゅう "feather-born") gives an image of skating/jumping light as a feather. He got my vote as having the most fitting name for a figure skater.

I don't know...耿冰娃 (Geng Bingwa) might have something to say about that

 

[prettykeys]

The original meaning of 結 is "to tie or connect" and 弦 is symbolic of music. So Yuzuru (結弦, ゆづる) can be interpreted as the ability to connect to the music or tie skating to the music. His surname Hanyū (羽生, はにゅう "feather-born") gives an image of skating/jumping light as a feather. He got my vote as having the most fitting name for a figure skater.

Yes, I do like the meaning of his name.

 

[skatinginbc]

耿冰娃 (Geng Bingwa) might have something to say about that

Hm, Geng Bingwa 耿冰娃, "devoted ice girl", eh...

 

[skatinginbc]

American male skater: Armin Mahbanoozadeh (=Mahbanoo “Moon Lady” 月娃 + zadeh “son of”).
For Chinese posters, here is the interesting part: The mother of Poet Immortal Li Bai 李白, one of the greatest poets in the Chinese literary history, was named 月娃 (Manbano). She was probably a Scythian (Iranian), not Chinese nor Turk (突厥) as widely assumed. I know, it is hard to imagine that the greatest Chinese poet is a Mahbanoozadeh. Is it unimaginable that one of the greatest American skaters is a Kwan?

 

[dorispulaski]

OOO that is interesting.

 

[Violet Bliss]

Well, Li Bai certainly had a very special relationship with the moon, a drinking buddy if nothing else. Didn't he also drown when trying to reach for the moon in the river?

The 娃 in 月娃 is the same Wa in Bingwa so Li's mother would be a moon baby, much like myself.

 

[skatinginbc]

The 娃 in 月娃 is the same Wa in Bingwa so Li's mother would be a moon baby, much like myself.

Like yourself? Then you might be interested to know that the original meaning of 娃 (Mandarin wa) has nothing to do with "baby or infant". It was first recorded in the Han dynasty and pronounced as /ʔwriē/ or something like "re" for the sake of easy understanding. It meant--don't be shocked--"round and deep eyed child" (圜深目皃)--child of Caucasian descent, in other words. It was NOT Sino-Tibetan in origin. It also meant "a beautiful woman", borrowed from Proto-Austroasiatic /rah/ "unmarried woman". Its sense of "baby or infant" has not yet developed at the time of Li Bai (701 – 762) as evidenced by foreign borrowing, for instance, Japanese 娃 meaning "beautiful, beauty" (美しい).

I guess you must be a beautiful moon lady.

 

[Violet Bliss]

Doll in Chinese is "yang wawa", literally Western baby. I doubt wawa as baby or a child was derived from "doll". I'm pretty sure it preceded "yang wawa" which is quite modern. The construction of the word 娃 indicates a girl or woman - grown form babies of course!

I have a hard time relating the name Yuzuru Hanyu to ice or figure skating in any direct way. My vote goes to Geng Bingwa.

 

[seniorita]

Is there a chinese character that could be meaning seniorita is a hanyu uber?

I think this must be one of my fav threads ever here! it is fascinating, I can hardly understand but I keep reading!

 

[fscric]

The mother of Poet Immortal Li Bai 李白, one of the greatest poets in the Chinese literary history, was named 月娃 (Manbano). She was probably a Scythian (Iranian), not Chinese nor Turk (突厥) as widely assumed. I know, it is hard to imagine that the greatest Chinese poet is a Mahbanoozadeh.

Fascinating! So Li Bai might not be a pure Chinese, I wonder what kind of language did Lai Bai speak with his mother. Can you find more substantial information to support this opinion? I would love to read that.

 

[skatinginbc]

Doll in Chinese is "yang wawa", literally Western baby. I doubt wawa as baby or a child was derived from "doll". I'm pretty sure it preceded "yang wawa" which is quite modern. The construction of the word 娃 indicates a girl or woman - grown form babies of course!

As the time went on, the pronunciation of 娃 changed from /ʔwriē/ (Eastern Han) to /ʔʷạ̈/ (Tang dynasty) to /wa/ (probably Song Dynasty). After it was pronounced as /wa/, people started to use it as an onomatopoeia, a word that imitates the source of the sound that it describes: the baby's crying sound--waaaaah, waaah, wah-wah. So 娃娃 (wa wa) became a term for "baby". The meaning of "doll" is rather modern due to the import of Western dolls.

The original meaning of 娃 is defined in Han-Dynasty dictionary 說文解字 as "圜深目皃". "深目" refers to people with deep eye sockets, a term associated with peoples of the West in ancient time.

 

[skatinginbc]

Is there a chinese character that could be meaning seniorita is a hanyu uber?

The archaic term for Seniorita in Chinese would be 娘 (Middle Chinese /ṇaŋ/ "girl", Mandarin niang "mother, madam"). It is pretty much out of use now.

The "modern" term would be 小姐 (Mandarin xiao jie). Be careful though if you say it. In mainland China, it adopts the sense of "prostitute". I went to Beijing once and approached a female pedestrian: "Excuse me, Miss (小姐), what time is it now?" Her boyfriend almost gave me a fist right in the street. How sad! It used to be a very respectful term.

I don't know what would be the appropriate translation of Senorita in today's Mandarin.

 

[skatinginbc]

Fascinating! So Li Bai might not be a pure Chinese, I wonder what kind of language did Lai Bai speak with his mother. Can you find more substantial information to support this opinion? I would love to read that.

Do you read Chinese? If so, just do a google search with 李白月娃 and you'll find a bunch of articles. Although 月娃 or Li Bai's mother was a Türküt (突厥) national, she was probably of Iranian descent, based on geographical/archeological evidence as well as linguistic evidence. Li Bai was born in 碎葉 （Suyab) or modern Kyrgyzstan. Do a google search on the early history of Kyrgyzstan, you'll see "Scythians were early settlers in present-day Kyrgyzstan" and "Chinese and Muslim sources of the 7th–12th centuries AD describe the early Kyrgyz as red-haired with white skin and blue eyes, which is indicative of ancient Iranic mountain tribes" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kyrgyzstan. Turkification is a later product.

Linguistic evidence comes from the name 月娃. Which language had a name meaning "Moonlady" in the 7th century? Turkic or Iranian?

Turkic "Moon Lady" is Ai-Khanoum (Turkic aj “moon” + khan(o) “lord, prince, ruler” + *eme “woman”).
Iranian “Moon Lady” is Mahbano (Bactrian mao, Middle Persian mah, “moon”; Avestan banu “ray of light”, Old Iranian -banu “having the splendor of”).

Mahbano is an ancient name and thus the likely candidate.

 

[Olympia]

This is so much fun to learn about!

I didn't know that about the ancestry of early Kyrgyz. Might some of them be descended from Greeks and Macedonians who followed Alexander the Great through Asia to the Indus River, or am I in the wrong part of the continent for that?

I echo Seniorita: this is just about my favorite thread.