Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2015 August 7

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August 7

Chinese exonym for the American continent

What was the oldest historical Chinese exonym for the Americas? Before Gold Mountain (金山). During the time of the Spanish China trade in the Philippines or the Portuguese trade with the Ming Dynasty. --KAVEBEAR (talk) 20:32, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

[Wikipedia has an article "Gold Mountain (Chinese name for part of North America)".—Wavelength (talk) 15:55, 8 August 2015 (UTC)]

I knew of its existence already.--KAVEBEAR (talk) 16:01, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

Luau in British English

I looked this word up in my Oxford English Dictionary, and didn't find it: [1] !

So, is this just an oversight, or is this word genuinely unknown in British English ? If so, what do they call a Hawaiian or Polynesian-themed party ? Or, do they just never have those, ever ? StuRat (talk) 21:57, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

See http://www.onelook.com/?w=luau for definitions in many dictionaries, including British ones.

—Wavelength (talk) 22:03, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

Oxford says "This word or phrase is not in this dictionary, but is in the Oxford Advanced American Dictionary". That seems to support it not being considered part of Br.E. StuRat (talk) 22:16, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

Collins English Dictionary has http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/luau,

and Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary has http://dictionary.cambridge.org/dictionary/british/luau.

—Wavelength (talk) 22:28, 7 August 2015 (UTC)

You didn't look it up in the full Oxford English Dictionary: this entry (which you may need a subscription to access, or a visit to a library to read). There are two definitions, added in 1976: one for the party or feast and one for the cooked dish. You are correct that the word is rare in British English, appearing almost exclusively in books about Hawaii and Hawaiian cooking. Dbfirs 07:11, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

The second definition (a type of meal) is unknown to me, and, I suspect, most Americans. Only the Hawaiian-themed party meaning seems to have made it into US English in a big way. StuRat (talk) 15:08, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

I've never heard of it, and I suspect that if anybody over here ever had a "Hawaiian or Polynesian-themed party" they would probably call it just that. As for the dish, I've never heard of it either, but then I doubt that you'd find stargazy pie in many American dictionaries. Alansplodge (talk) 17:33, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

Partially supporting and partially contradicting my hypothesis, I found this UK website which describes itself as a "specialist Hawaiian Theme Party online shop" and although it does mention the word "laua". I'd be astonished if many of its readers knew what it meant or how to pronounce it. Alansplodge (talk) 17:48, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

You don't get Hawaii Five-O or Hawaii Five-0 over there? Criminal! Book'em Danno. Clarityfiend (talk) 21:14, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

Surely you've seen Blue Hawaii on one of its thousands of repeat screenings? Even I have done so. Admittedly, they've now given way to the thousands of repeat screenings of Adam Sandler movies, and movies with the word "Wedding" in the title - strangely, often the same movies. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 23:45, 8 August 2015 (UTC)

I've never seen Blue Hawaii and Hawaii Five-O had a certain popularity in the 1970s, but you'll have to trust me that Hawaii does not figure highly in British culture; except maybe Hawaiian pizza or those lurid shirts worn by middle-aged-men-who-should-know-better. Perhaps another British editor might be able to contradict me, but we used to have enough exotic colonies of our own. Alansplodge (talk) 10:21, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Hawaii was never a British colony, but James Cook is generally accepted as its first European discoverer (hence the Union Jack in their flag). Cook named Hawaii the "Sandwich Islands", which was weirdly prophetic, because the Hawaiians made mincemeat of him. Literally. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 13:27, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Literally? --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 14:57, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

I always choose my words carefully. See this film, from about 1.34:00 to 1.37:00. It seems he was surrounded by about 2 dozen Hawaiians with spears, and was subjected to the full force of their rage for close to 3 minutes. Maybe not his entire body, but his back was certainly converted into mincemeat. -- Jack of Oz ^{[pleasantries]} 20:22, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Ah-ha. It's hard to see the other pie filling ingredients there, but it does seem to suggest ground meat of some sort. --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 17:36, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

British editor here, happy to agree with Alansplodge rather than contradict him. Bazza (talk) 15:03, 9 August 2015 (UTC)

Yes, I agree with Alan: the average UK resident is unlikely to have met the word. By the way, the second OED definition was "A cooked dish of young taro leaves served with coconut cream and octopus or chicken." Dbfirs 06:56, 10 August 2015 (UTC)

I would never have guessed that this word is practically unknown in UK. Even for Americans, though, how often do people really use "luau" for "Hawaiian-themed party"? As far as I ever heard it used, it was only for a "real" luau, or at least something very closely approaching it (starting with the roast of a whole pig). StevenJ81 (talk) 17:42, 10 August 2015 (UTC)