April 5 2007: Vinegar
Filed under Asian-ness
I was discussing vinegar with my father today, and he told me a little story.
The Chinese character for vinegar looks like this. The left half of the character is a component of the word “jiu” which means alcohol. The top right quarter of the character can be seen as a stylisation of the characters “twenty-one”. The bottom right quarter of the character can be seen as the character “day”.
According to Chinese myth, vinegar was discovered by a winemaker in imperial times. In those days, wine was made by fermenting rice water in large enamel jars. Normally, the rice water was left to ferment for two months - only then would it be turned into alcohol.
However, this winemaker was impatient, and opened a jar before the designated two month period, after only twenty-one days. In the jar he found not rice water, not rice wine, but vinegar…and that’s why the character is composed the way it is.
Just another reason why Chinese r0×0rs.
11 Responses to “Vinegar”
Leave a Reply
I reserve the right to edit or delete your comment as I see fit, though I only delete comments from anonymous commenters, or people with multiple aliases. Using a genuine name/email combination will ensure that your comment is approved.
That’s wicked.
Did they make the word “Twathead” because someone got a head rammed up their twat?
Reply: Wow Doran. That sounds incredibly suggestive…are you propositioning me, and if so, should we get a room? :P
Doran on April 5 2007 #
In French, “vinaigre” is like “sour wine”. Less fun of a story, I guess.
Julie on April 5 2007 #
Yes, yes and YES.
Doran on April 5 2007 #
Chinese language is beautiful and I love their symbolism and history of each character :)
Chien Yee on April 5 2007 #
That’s something I really admire about the written Chinese language, each character has its origin or story like the spoken words themselves. Very cool.
Kat on April 5 2007 #
You know, I don’t think we have any funny anecdotes.
Amber on April 5 2007 #
When I visited China a few years back people mocked me that my first name is Nan - no one could agree about the sign for it nor the meaning though.
Chinese looks extremely difficult to learn!
Nan on April 5 2007 #
The Chinese are really good at myths and stories. Like the stories of full moon and stuff xD
CHINESE4LYFE
Jennifer on April 5 2007 #
That’s pretty much awesome!!! I’m jealous that my language isn’t sweet like that. And pretty!
Mar on April 5 2007 #
The stories behind the words are cool, but memorizing tham all is painful! =/ Here’s another cool Chinese word thingy courtesy of John F. Kennedy:
“When written in Chinese, the word ‘crisis’ is composed of two characters–one represents danger, and the other represents opportunity.”
Belinda on April 6 2007 #
Yay, I learned a new Chinese word! Here’s to hoping I’ll actually remember it… :D
Chinese is pretty cool when it comes to taking apart words and seeing what the individual parts mean. Unfortunately, there are times when I can’t make heads or tails of them.
Kycoo on April 6 2007 #