Re: USAGE: Dinos and dragons

From: "H. S. Teoh"

> "Lizard" in Hokkien is "sin3 tang2", something-worm. (I *think* it means
> "new worm" but that sounds a bit odd). It will be VERY weird to refer to
> dinosaurs as some kind of oversized worm! :-P
>
> I'm not sure about the Mandarin term for lizards, but I seem to recall
> something to do with "sher2" (snake). Although it *is* possible to derive
> a term for dinosaurs from snake, it does sound odd. Basically, in Chinese
> thinking, a snake is footless; anything long and slithery that has legs
> and other limbs must be some kind of dragon.
Mandarin for "lizard" is "xi1yi4". Both my mainland and Taiwan Hokkien
dictionaries give "si3ka1zua5" (four-footed snake) and "do7ding7" (looks
like characters arbitrarily selected for sound) as the equivalents. Hokkien
"tang5" is "insect"; can't guess what "sin" might be and am not looking up
all the possibilities one by one, but I found nothing under "new". "Worm" in
Mandarin is "qiu1yin3", the Hokkien equivalent given is 'to5wun2"
(earth-worm) (also "gao5wun2" [monkey-worm]).