Yen Doen't Make Sense
Sunday, October twenty first, two thousand and seven
Although I had booked a couple of lessons at NOVA for yesterday, one of them was canceled because many teachers didn't come to the school due to its recent bad financial situation that the company hasn't paid them the paycheck yet. Besides, there weren't enough substitute teachers, so it can't be helped... However, I went out with some teachers last night actually. One of my study buddies, who is 65-year-old Japanese guy and has studied English for nearly 10 years, invited them and me to his house, which is very close to the school, because some of them are going to get back to their respective countries soon. It's kind of his tradition to invite them over before teachers' leaving Japan. After that, some teachers and I hit a bar near his house without him as he had to work in the night. Since I made a pun with the word "yen" yesterday, I asked the native English speakers if the sentence makes sense or not. According to them, they have never used the word "yen" as "a strong desire" before and didn't know the meaning. So I realized that the word "yen" is a correct English word because it's contained in my dictionary, but that's not to say it's used by native speakers. I mean, all words in dictionaries of any language aren't necessarily used in real life. At the end of the conversation they taught me another word that has the similar meaning of "yen". The word was.... "yearn".
yearn: 熱望する
8 comments:
Yen, according to my dictionary.
yen1 |yen| noun ( pl. same) the basic monetary unit of Japan. ORIGIN from Japanese en ‘round.’
yen2 informal noun [in sing. ] a longing or yearning : [with infinitive ] she always had a yen to be a writer. verb ( yenned, yenning) [ intrans. ] feel a longing or yearning : it's no use yenning for the old simplicities. ORIGIN late 19th cent.(in the sense [craving (of a drug addict) for a drug] ): from Chinese yǎn.
Thesaurus
yen noun informal
I've got a yen for chocolate cake hankering, yearning, longing, craving, urge, desire, want, wish, hunger, thirst, lust, appetite, ache; fancy, inclination; informal itch.
Hey akira,
Good to know! Could you tell me your dictionary's name if you don't mind?
Oxford English Dictionary
hmm, that's interesting, because last month i studied all about drug addicts in china in the 19th century. the british were drug-dealing pirates back then!
Hey akira,
I've just confirmed your quote from the dictionary. Actually I have an electric virsion of the dictionary.
hey ダニエル,
Yeah, that's really interesting. I didn't think the meaning of "a strong desire" drives from a drug addict in China.
It's related to "Opium War", isn't it?
yeah, i guess it is. that's when the opium wars were happening, so probably...
Ah.... misspelling...
not "drive from", "derive from" is correct. (ToT) How stupid I am. :<
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