Zompist Bboard Again

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2024 12:52 pm "Tong" isn't used in the singular in any standard variety of English I know. I'd call these "pasta tongs".

Travis B. wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2024 2:16 pmOTOH, the above uses of "clip" and "clamp" certainly are not cromulent.

xxx wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2024 1:58 pm [images]

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Tue Jul 16, 2024 3:38 pm Product ads these days are full of sus machine translations. I never trust them anymore when trying to learn new vocabulary in a non-native language.

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2024 12:52 pm "Tong" isn't used in the singular in any standard variety of English I know.

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2024 12:52 pm I’d call these "pasta tongs".

TomHChappell wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 12:51 pm

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Mon Jul 15, 2024 12:52 pm "Tong" isn't used in the singular in any standard variety of English I know.

In places that have Chinatowns, and Hong Kong, and probably Taiwan, and maybe Singapore, a “tong” is pretty much the Chinese equivalent of a Japanese zaibatsu. If there’s a difference, it might be that tongs always have a political “department”, whereas I’m unaware of most zaibatsus having any permanent political sub-agency.
Maybe “triad society” is the phrase British-derived HongKongians use for “tong”?

bradrn wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 1:07 pm

TomHChappell wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 12:51 pm In places that have Chinatowns, and Hong Kong, and probably Taiwan, and maybe Singapore, a “tong” is pretty much the Chinese equivalent of a Japanese zaibatsu. If there’s a difference, it might be that tongs always have a political “department”, whereas I’m unaware of most zaibatsus having any permanent political sub-agency.
Maybe “triad society” is the phrase British-derived HongKongians use for “tong”?

I suspect this ‘tong’ is etymologically unrelated.

TomHChappell wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 1:14 pm I suspect it’s borrowed into English from some Chinese lexeme. Don’t know which Chinese language (or “dialect”).

What’s the etymology of the other tongs? Like, for serving salad?

• The more common meaning comes from West Germanic *tangu of the same meaning, ultimately from PIE *denḱ- ‘to bite’
• The other meaning is from Cantonese 堂 tong⁴.

bradrn wrote: ↑Fri Jul 19, 2024 1:29 pm

• The other meaning is from Cantonese 堂 tong⁴.

Lērisama wrote: ↑Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:51 am I think that's some some kind of bottle opener, but I'm not familiar with the design

Linguoboy wrote: ↑Tue Nov 12, 2024 12:59 pm

Lērisama wrote: ↑Tue Nov 12, 2024 10:51 am I think that's some some kind of bottle opener, but I'm not familiar with the design

Yeah, I'm not even sure how I would use that.

Raphael wrote: ↑Wed Nov 13, 2024 2:55 pm It is a bottle/jar opener. Smaller lids can be put into the large opening, while you can try to get a grip on larger lids with the outer rim ridge.



OK, next question. This is for the older ones among you, the ones who can remember the times before phone apps could do group chats.

What do you call an agreement among a group of people to the effect that, if there's some news or information they should all know, the one who hears about it calls the first person on a written list of the people in question by phone, then the first person on the list calls the second person on the list by phone, and so on?

WeepingElf wrote: ↑Wed Nov 13, 2024 3:03 pmIn German, we call(ed) it a Telefonkette, and I guess the English term is telephone chain.