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.
Great analogy. I’ll admit I thought you had a stroke mid-sentence.
Ahem. I’m still on my tiptoes, awaiting the meaning of the second character in “business.”
Ugh… it’s business. Chinese does that sometimes. 業 means line of business, trade or occupation.
And I’m still waiting on the second character of penguin. I’m guessing that’s Chinese doing its thing again?
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.
Ah, well that all makes sense then.
You could do this all day with Vietnamese. Kangaroo is bag mouse. Orca is assassin fish, giraffe is a long-necked deer. Etc.
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
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.
Are you implying that the word for leopard is compounded from the word for leopard??? How did they get the first word for leopard if they didn’t have a word for leopard???
Correction: it’s male leopard. It surprised me as well. It’s ultimately from Indo-Iranian origin.
The Dutch are sneaky bastards (stiekemeklootzakken).
There are only two things I can’t stand in this world: People who are intolerant of other people’s cultures, and the Dutch.
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.
Hippopotamus comes from the Greek words hippos (horse) and potamos (river). So literally “river horse”.
So this is why Indonesian names for hippo, sea urchin and seal are weird af. They are actually direct translation from their dutch names!
Norwegian
Hedgehog: Needle Swine (pinnsvin/
Wow that’s a big bouncing animal! Kind of reminds me of-
“A mouse. Like a big mouse with a bag.”
…Good idea sir.Sylvester agrees.
German has Killerwahl (killer whale) for orca
So does English, no?
I didn’t know. So the German might be a calque from the English
That’s adorable
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.
Enjoy some AI generated business goose
I very much enjoyed this!
It’s more like “standing goose”
That’s still wonderful though.
Goose is literally just “I” and “Bird”
Bussiness iBird
Sounds like a new apple drone that spys on you
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
Tuxedo Scuba Bird
enjoy the little things…
Now I’m picturing penguins having nonstop business meetings about fish and vendor relations in Antarctica.
“Hello sir can I interest you in some flounder?”
wtf do you mean ‘but remember’. i hate this stupid setup. that has nothing to do with anything
I think it does. World is a hell scape but at least there is this charming bit of logic to hold on to. Helped me get through the day.
I agree with you. It’s important to find anything that can help you retain some sanity. I love animals, cute things, language, culture, and China. This is very endearing to me. This stops me from immediately walking into traffic.
Until I scrolled down and saw it wasn’t even true. This truly is a hellscape. A Traffic walk sounds like a good idea.
Nooo, really??
