Watch Your Language Blog

New coinage alert: "Ding Chong Jiating"

And it's just another name for "dinks" (dual income, no kids couples) who prefer pets, rather than children. Chinese officials recently accepted new phrases such as the one above into the National Language Registry. Other adapted phrases include: "gray skills," "house slaves," and something most of us tech folks suffer from: the "three-hand illness," which is for "people fatigued by overuse of their hand to play with gaming machines, click on their computer mouse or to send messages via their mobile phone." We need to add that one to the English language.

There are no updates yet on whether a certain Chinese couple were allowed to name their baby "@." (The symbol when pronounced with a drawn out "T" sounds like "ai ta," which means "love him" in Mandarin.) (ELHAM)


August 21, 2007