Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2009 February 25

Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is an archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the current reference desk pages.

February 25

Definition

What does "leg lamps" mean use ctrl+f: [1]96.53.149.117 (talk) 04:06, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

It refers to a worthless award. The term comes from the movie A Christmas Story, where the father receives an award from his boss, and the award turns out to be this. The movie, and that specific scene, have become iconic pieces of Americana and show up in cultural references all the time. You can buy your own replica of the lamp at many places, and it shows up, as you found here, in all sorts of references. For example, on the sports debate show Pardon The Interruption, a replica leg lamp is in the background behind Tony and Michael. --Jayron32.talk.contribs 05:21, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Bit of irrelevant clarification: The Old Man actually won the lamp as a prize in a newspaper puzzle contest; and the leg prominent in its design was a symbol of the Nehi company, as mentioned in our article at the preceding link. Deor (talk) 14:03, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

What colour is jajeok (Korean 紫赤)?

I was reading some random articles, and came across the article Wonsam. It mentions the colour jajeok, and gives the Korean for it (紫赤), but what is it in English? --Snorgle (talk) 11:55, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

It's jajeok rather than janjeok in the article, but I haven't a clue about the colour. Karenjc 13:51, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Ok, I edited the word, and hopefully someone else will have an idea.Snorgle (talk) 14:16, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

The Japanese Wikipedia has a page for the color purple, I guess. Your two symbols appear in reverse order at [2], seemingly denoting a strong pinkish violet. --Milkbreath (talk) 14:37, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

紫 is purple and 赤 is red in Japanese. Oda Mari (talk) 14:51, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

In case it helps, I chased the links and came up with the hex code for that color with the signs reversed: #C54EA0. --Milkbreath (talk) 21:00, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

"Purple red" would be the meaning in Chinese. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 21:41, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

I looked at our article "Korean language", and it didn't say why a Korean word would be in Japanese. I'm guessing that both languages use the Chinese for certain things, such as colors. Is that right? --Milkbreath (talk) 22:06, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Both Japanese and Korean use Chinese compounds, but both alnguages have contributed their own combinations that aren't used in Chinese. I suspect this is one of them, but the assumption that it is a purple-red combination seems appropriate. My speaciality is Chinese, not Korean, though. Steewi (talk) 23:39, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for the help, everyone who answered! Snorgle (talk) 16:29, 26 February 2009 (UTC)

XX: 你好

What does XX: 你好 mean? I saw it at the top of a letter, and I think that it's the equivalent of "dear: " in chinese. Is this true? If not, what is the way that you write dear: at the top of a letter? thanks! Yakeyglee (talk) 20:51, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

If I'm not mistaken (my Chinese is practically non-existant), those two characters are simply ni hao, that is Hello in Chinese. TomorrowTime (talk) 20:58, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

Right, I know, but do the two Xs do anything to it to make it something along the lines of "dear"?Yakeyglee (talk) 21:01, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

XX is the name. It's roughly in usage equivalent to "Dear XX," in the sense that it's a common way to begin a letter. However, the connotation carried by the words is probably more like "Dear XX, I hope you are well." or "Dear XX, how are you?" --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 21:40, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

你家有没有吗？

Could someone tell me what "你家有没有吗？" means? Thanks! Yakeyglee (talk) 22:05, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

It means "Does your family have any?" What they are asking about isn't specified, and I'd assume it was understood through context. If there is no context, you should be able to assume that it refers to what family members you have (i.e. father, mother, brothers and sisters). Steewi (talk) 23:41, 25 February 2009 (UTC)

That's ungrammatical. It's something like "Does your home have or not, is it?" If you are asking "Do you have [it] in your home/Does your home have it?" it should be either 你家有没有? or 你家有吗? --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 23:41, 25 February 2009 (UTC)