汉字; Rawr Edition.
Feb. 26th, 2026 11:38 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
petsohp A couple of months ago, I declared my love for dinosaurs; especifically speaking about how their hold on cultural myths all around the world makes me really emo.
And well well well, wouldn't you know what the term for 'dinosaur' in chinese is? Its '恐龍'! (Yes, we are traditional fans here...mainly because the information nuggets of meaning in traditional are well, there...mostly). I fear (heh) the chinese got me good this time, they were miles ahead of me in that certain hypothesis.
So: '恐', means 'to fear/fearful, be afraid', and '龍', well, 'dragon' and the equivalent of the suffix of 'saur' in palentology. For example, the term Plesiosaur is translated to 蛇頸龍, 'Snake neck dinosaur'. And because we are nerds that get things correct in here, to further clarify: the term Plesiosaur is the generic term for the marine animals that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs, the term 'saur' is greek for lizard/reptile; remember that when the first dinosaurs were classified, no one thought they could be birds. Which is probably why in chinese the word '恐' was allocated to this group of animals: that was the common sentiment for these creatures at the time. Ah, science!
So to continue with '恐龍'.
'恐' has the heart component (心), the worker/labour component (工), and a new one for me, 凡, meaning 'in general, ordinary/commonplace'. I'll be real with you folks, I have no idea how these three components are suppose to mean 'fear'. In fact, the only component that makese sense to me is the heart component. Truly, language of all times.
You know which character is really interesting? '龍'. According to my research, an alternative for this character was, '竜'. And well, funny thing is..that in Japan '竜' is not an ancient alternative character; its the official 'simplified' character, in the shinjitai.
Man, this one got really...loong.
And well well well, wouldn't you know what the term for 'dinosaur' in chinese is? Its '恐龍'! (Yes, we are traditional fans here...mainly because the information nuggets of meaning in traditional are well, there...mostly). I fear (heh) the chinese got me good this time, they were miles ahead of me in that certain hypothesis.
So: '恐', means 'to fear/fearful, be afraid', and '龍', well, 'dragon' and the equivalent of the suffix of 'saur' in palentology. For example, the term Plesiosaur is translated to 蛇頸龍, 'Snake neck dinosaur'. And because we are nerds that get things correct in here, to further clarify: the term Plesiosaur is the generic term for the marine animals that lived at the same time as the dinosaurs, the term 'saur' is greek for lizard/reptile; remember that when the first dinosaurs were classified, no one thought they could be birds. Which is probably why in chinese the word '恐' was allocated to this group of animals: that was the common sentiment for these creatures at the time. Ah, science!
So to continue with '恐龍'.
'恐' has the heart component (心), the worker/labour component (工), and a new one for me, 凡, meaning 'in general, ordinary/commonplace'. I'll be real with you folks, I have no idea how these three components are suppose to mean 'fear'. In fact, the only component that makese sense to me is the heart component. Truly, language of all times.
You know which character is really interesting? '龍'. According to my research, an alternative for this character was, '竜'. And well, funny thing is..that in Japan '竜' is not an ancient alternative character; its the official 'simplified' character, in the shinjitai.
Man, this one got really...loong.
