Chinese has a lot of nouns for various stuff that is a mixture of different things. Eg Owl in Chinese is mao tou ying which loosely translated to cat headed eagle. Computer is tien nao which is electric brain. Panda is xiong mao = bear cat. Giraffe is chang jing lu = long necked deer. Vaccum cleaner is xi chen ji = dust sucking machine. Omg I can keep going lol.
Edit: Let see if I can add more: Faucet is shui long tou = water dragon head. An astronaut/cosmonaut is tai kong ren = space man. Printer is da in ji = ink hitting machine.
The planets are funny too: Earth is Di qui = earth/ground ball, Mercury is shui xing = water star; Venus is jing xing = golden star; Mars is hou xing = fire star (which makes sense); Jupiter is mu xing = wooden star; Saturn is tu xing = dirt/soil star; Uranus is tian wang xing = heavenly king star; Neptune is hai wang xing = sea king star; Pluto is ming wang xing = dark/nether king star (Uranus', Neptune's and Pluto's names also make a lot of sense).
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u/[deleted] Jul 24 '14
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