Phraseological Dictionary of the Russian Language
Chinese
Chinese letter- about something inaccessible to understanding
Chinese ceremonies joking iron.- excessive, exaggerated politeness
Efremova's Dictionary
Chinese
- adj.
- Relating to China, the Chinese, associated with them.
- Characteristic of the Chinese, characteristic of them and of China.
- Owned by China, by the Chinese.
- Created, hatched, etc. in China or by the Chinese.
Toponymic Dictionary of the Amur Region
Chinese
group of watercourses in the Amur region: creek, lp R. Agin, head, lp R. Yankan Mal. in Tyndinsky district; manual, lp manual Vladimirovsky (swimming pool R. Current), manual, lp R. Gilyuy stream, flows into Zeyskoye vdhr.(previously pp R. Small Nogdy) in Zeya district; manual, lp R. Magdagachi in Magdagachi district; KITAYSKY-2 – stream, flows into Zeyskoye vdhr.(previously pp R. Small Nogdy) in Zeya district. At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the development of gold mines was carried out using the “yellow” labor force - the Chinese, hence the name of the streams.
Phraseological Dictionary (Volkova)
Chinese
Chinese letter (decomposition) - sth. incomprehensible.
The simplest theorems seemed to him like Chinese letters.
Chinese Wall, in expressions: fence off with a Chinese wall, live behind a Chinese wall, etc. ( book) - about complete isolation, isolation from external influences [after the name of the ancient wall separating China from Mongolia].
No one could break through the Chinese wall she had built around herself..
Chinese ceremonies (iron.) - excessive, cutesy politeness.
What kind of Chinese ceremony are you having here?
Ushakov's Dictionary
Chinese
Chinese, Chinese, Chinese. adj. to China and to . Republic of China. Chinese.
Chinese letter ( decomposition) - something inaccessible to understanding. The simplest theorems seemed to him like Chinese letters. The Chinese wall, in expressions: to fence off, to be separated by the Chinese wall, to live behind the Chinese wall and so on. (books) - about complete isolation, isolation from external influences (after the name of the ancient wall separating China from Mongolia). Chinese ceremonies ( iron.) - excessive, cutesy politeness. Chinese ink is a type of black ink for drawing and painting. Chinese shadows are entertainment that consists of performing scenes using shadows cast on a banner by moving figures.
Ozhegov's Dictionary
WHALE A YSKY, oh, oh.
1. cm. .
2. Relating to the Chinese, their language, national character, way of life, culture, as well as China, its territory, internal structure, history; like the Chinese, like in China. K. tongue(Sino-Tibetan family of languages). Chinese provinces. Chinese letter (hieroglyphic). Chinese lanterns (multi-colored paper lanterns). K. silk. Chinese embroidery. K. tea (variety). K. porcelain(bone china). K. bobblehead (seated porcelain figurine with a swinging body). Chinese Wall (an ancient multi-kilometer wall that separated China from Mongolia; also translated: about complete isolation from the outside world). K. Yuan(currency unit). In Chinese(adv.).
Chinese letter(colloquial) about what. completely incomprehensible.
Chinese ceremonies(ironically) about excessive displays of politeness and respect.
Sentences containing "Chinese"
Due to the unpredictability of East Asian monuments, the problems of their repeated restoration and the experimental nature of the work carried out, Chinese panels entered the category of high-risk exhibits.
There were two of them, wearing identical red jackets, sewn by Chinese political prisoners from extremely lousy leather; They quarreled quite plausibly, shoved each other in the chest and took turns winning brand new five-thousand-dollar notes from their mentor, which he handed to them silently and without raising his eyes.
Meanwhile, in November 1931, China's scattered rural areas, controlled by the Chinese Red Army, united to form the Chinese Soviet Republic, whose leaders declared war on Japan the following year.
Cheap Chinese workers enable Europeans and Americans to consume many more goods, although often unnecessary ones.
Kublai's honor to the young Polo and his appointment as governor of Yangzhou do not seem reliable, and the absence of Chinese or Mongolian official records of the presence of merchants in China for almost twenty years, according to Frances Wood, looks particularly suspicious.
The bathhouse was Chinese, but the Chinese don’t really like to take steam baths.
If you try to understand the essence of the reasons that push Chinese and Kazakh historians to such maneuvers in the process of recapturing a seemingly indisputable ancestor from the Mongols, they are extremely clear.
Thus, the shares of sports shoe manufacturer Pou Chen in the Chinese province of Guangdong also recently fell sharply in price.
Funny thing: if they sing in Chinese, there are often subtitles at the bottom of the screen.
These days, Chinese pensive long-suffering was unexpectedly interrupted: Beijing decided to enter into negotiations with representatives of the Syrian opposition, which is quite effectively seeking, with arms in hand, the overthrow of the autocratic regime of Bashar al-Assad.
Chinese letter Razg. Something difficult or incomprehensible. I have never written a review in my entire life, for me this is a Chinese letter(Chekhov. Letter to V.F. Komissarzhevskaya, January 19, 1899).
Phraseological dictionary of the Russian literary language. - M.: Astrel, AST. A. I. Fedorov. 2008.
Synonyms:See what “Chinese literacy” is in other dictionaries:
Chinese letter- Cm … Synonym dictionary
Chinese letter- ■ Everything incomprehensible... Lexicon of common truths
Chinese letter- Chinese (Tatar) letter (foreign) illegible, incomprehensible writing. Wed. From childhood, reading a book, except boredom, He felt nothing, Chinese literacy in science, Considered art nonsense... Nekrasov. Parable about “jelly”. Wed. Not just a theory... ... Michelson's Large Explanatory and Phraseological Dictionary (original spelling)
Chinese letter- Razg. Disapproved Same as gibberish letter 1. FSRYaa, 110; ZS 1996, 376; BTS, 225... Large dictionary of Russian sayings
Chinese letter- About something that is completely incomprehensible or difficult to understand... Dictionary of many expressions
CREDIT- (from the Greek grammata reading and writing) 1) the ability to read and write. 2) An official written act certifying any international agreement or establishing any legal relations (Ratification, Credential, etc.) ... Big Encyclopedic Dictionary
CREDIT Modern encyclopedia
Certificate- (from the Greek grammata reading and writing), 1) the ability to read and write. 2) A written act, official or private, in Russia in the 10th and early 20th centuries, a certificate granting a person or community rights, possessions, awards, distinctions (This Charter, Granted... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
diploma- See the document Chinese letter, gibberish letter, Tatar letter... Dictionary of Russian synonyms and expressions similar in meaning. under. ed. N. Abramova, M.: Russian Dictionaries, 1999. charter document, charter; certificate, letter of credit, chrisovul, letter... Synonym dictionary
CREDIT- GRAMOTA, s, female. 1. Ability to read and write. Learn to read and write. 2. Official document. Credential city Security city Patent city Pokhvalnaya city 3. In the old days: document, letter. Collection of Novgorod charters. Birch bark charters (Old Russian charters... ... Ozhegov's Explanatory Dictionary
Books
- Beijing and its surroundings (Nelles Pocket), Bergmann Jurgen. Why to Beijing? Do not immerse yourself - no, just touch the mysterious and beautiful country, whose ancient culture for us is “Chinese literacy”. Envy an orderly world, where temples...
All this is just some kind of Chinese writing - that’s what we usually say when we come across something incomprehensible. For some reason, we associate Chinese literacy with that which seems inaccessible to our minds.
Why exactly do we say this? Where did this expression, which has already become popular, come into our lexicon - Chinese writing? In order to understand what is going on here, we need to remember our history. Let's mentally return to the beginning of the seventeenth century. At that time, almost nothing was known about China in Rus'.
Namely, they knew that somewhere far, far away there was a state where they made unusually beautiful porcelain dishes.
It was believed that this country was not so big, because, according to eyewitnesses, it was fenced with a protective wall. And since in Rus' every large city had its own fortifications and its own protective walls, it was clear that this work was not easy and it was unlikely that a large country could be fenced off from the rest of the world with one wall.
And then in 1618 a representative mission was officially created to travel to China. It was headed by Ivan Petlin, a respected Cossack ataman, whom Tsar Mikhail Fedorovich instructed to establish trade relations with the “distant Busurmans.” The trip turned out to be long but successful. The Russian mission returned from China with gifts and a letter prescribing agreements in trade matters between the two countries.
The gifts pleased the king; “Chinese herb” tea became very popular at court. It was especially admired by the nobility when it was served in cups of their fine Chinese porcelain. Merchants were afraid to touch such fragile and elegant products.
But there was one thing left...
Since in those days there was no translator from Chinese, no one could read the letter and find out what the agreement was about...
But travel and trade began anyway; in those days, each document was spoken out in front of witnesses before being signed. So the Russian envoys heard the main points of the trade agreements first-hand.
This went on for a very long time.
And only in 1675 the Chinese letter was translated. Until this time it was kept in the archives. And when a person appeared who spoke not only the Chinese language, but also knew how to read hieroglyphs - it was the Russian scientist and diplomat Nikolai Spafariy, at that time he just headed the Russian embassy in Beijing, the document was translated into Russian and under it, finally, was signed by the king.
This is the story of the origin of this catchphrase - the Chinese letter.
For 57 long years, no one could read the document. It is not surprising that the expression has become so popular in our speech. It has stood the test of time; 57 years was the length of a human life at that time.
In Russian there is a very convenient expression “Chinese letter”. This is what they say when something becomes unclear or when something is difficult to understand. Let's say that for many, speaking Thai will also be “Chinese literacy”. But Thai is not Chinese. Why do they say this?
It is easy to guess that the expression “Chinese literacy” arose due to the fact that Chinese characters are really difficult to understand for a person who has never studied Chinese. Hieroglyphic writing has always attracted people, but it has always seemed inaccessible. And everything that is difficult to understand, people often associate with Chinese. But why then don’t we say “Arabic writing” or “Japanese writing”? Why is their writing worse? Probably, folk etymology will not answer this question.
Still, there are certain patterns that shed light on this issue. It is known that in a number of languages there are similar expressions that are used in similar cases. They all blame Chinese for its incomprehensibility. For example:
Polish: to dla mnie chińszczyzna
French: c"est du chinois
Spanish: me suena a chino, esto es chino para mí
Romanian: e chineză pentru mine
Dutch: dat is Chinees voor mij
Greek: είναι κινέζικα για μένα
Hungarian: ez nekem kínai
Hebrew: זה סינית בשבילי (ze sinit bishvili)
Of course, there are many more ways to convey the same meaning. A German, for example, may say ich verstehe nur Bahnhof or ich verstehe nichts “I don’t understand anything.” A Chinese person will probably say something like 完全不懂 “I don’t understand anything at all.” There are also more exotic expressions. For example, the German das sind böhmische Dörfer für mich "for me these are Bohemian villages." Another geographical reference is already visible. Bohemia is a part of the Czech Republic where they speak Czech, which is “too strange and incomprehensible” for the German ear. The Czechs, in turn, talk about “Spanish villages”: to je pro mě španělská vesnice. The Spaniards are also considered incomprehensible by some Germans, using the expression das kommt mir Spanisch vor. There is a similar expression in Serbo-Croatian: “shpanska sela” - this is what Serbs say when they cannot understand their interlocutor.
But for example, here is a similar English phrase: it’s all Greek to me “for me it’s Greek.” The British blame the Greeks for the lack of clarity. Speakers of other languages do the same:
Norwegian: det er helt gresk for meg
Swedish: det är rena grekiskan
Portuguese: para mim você está falando grego
Why do the poor Greeks seem incomprehensible to the Germans? Unknown. Greek gave other languages a large layer of its vocabulary, so it is still possible to somehow understand the meaning of individual words. But, let’s say, this won’t work with the Semitic language. Turks speak very expressively about Arabic: bir şey anladıysam Arap olayım. Modern Turkish is teeming with Arabisms and even once used Arabic script as a writing system, so Arabic is not alien to the Turks. But the Italians have every right to say: per me è arabo. There are people who really don’t understand Arabic.
Some openly declare that everything incomprehensible to them sounds “Jewish”:
French: c'est de l'hébreu
Icelandic: þetta er hebreska fyrir mér
Finnish: tämä on minulle täyttä heprea a