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[-] Kushan@lemmy.world 29 points 3 days ago

Someone once told me that the Chinese word for penguin translated to "business goose" and I cannot tell you how crestfallen I was when I looked it up and found out it wasn't true.

[-] randint@lemmy.frozeninferno.xyz 11 points 3 days ago

Penguins are called 企鵝/企鹅 (qì'é, [tɕʰi˥˩ ɤ˧˥]) in Chinese. It would be better literally translated as standing goose. It just so happens to share the same character 企 with the word for business. Most people don't know that 企 means standing anymore though.

[-] DeathByBigSad@sh.itjust.works 12 points 3 days ago

I mean "企" character by itself isn't really a word, but maybe the person thought of 企业 (Enterprise/Bussiness), which I would say technically that person isn't like lying, just a misunderstanding of language.

But then again, I've only attended primary school grade-levels in China, so I'm no word expert either.

this post was submitted on 04 Aug 2025
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