To be fair, zero is a complicated number

  • nfsu2
    link
    fedilink
    arrow-up
    25
    ·
    7 months ago

    I dont know Chinese but it probable means empty or something.

    • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      46
      arrow-down
      1
      ·
      edit-2
      7 months ago

      According to wiktionary, it means to wither and fall, in some contexts it’s used to refer to rain or tears.

      It also means bottom(in gay contexts). lmao what that zerussy do?

      • nfsu2
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        7 months ago

        Hmmm, like death? as in cease to exist? Very interesting anyways.

          • nantsuu@fedia.io
            link
            fedilink
            arrow-up
            9
            ·
            7 months ago

            We do know why, it’s because death 死 and four 四 have the same pronunciation sǐ in Chinese (and shi in Japanese).

              • chayleaf@lemmy.ml
                link
                fedilink
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                7 months ago

                homophones are common in Chinese and Japanese because there’s only so many potential readings of a hieroglyph, but each one has a different meaning

                • alcoholicorn@lemmy.ml
                  link
                  fedilink
                  arrow-up
                  1
                  ·
                  7 months ago

                  Sure, but they’re often different enough to to be obvious in context, or similar enough to have a shared etymology.

                  Tones came later in Chinese, so when you have 2 homophones with similar meaning and different tones, they’re usually from words that had 2 suffixes, which were later dropped, but the tone of first part remained, 买 and 卖 didn’t end up with the same word by coincidence.

                  • nantsuu@fedia.io
                    link
                    fedilink
                    arrow-up
                    1
                    ·
                    7 months ago

                    Every language has homophones. Even before tones were created, sometimes there are just coincidences. As far as I know, there’s nothing to suggest that the number four and death are inherently related in some way. No one is suggesting that knead and need are related even though they sound the same, and lead (the act of leading) and lead (the metal) may happen to share a spelling but they’re still completely different words.