Tuesday, December 7, 2004

Botched Female, Dog, Tiger





From reader "Jan I.":



"The picture is just a random encounter during a shopping afternoon - a cap with some random looking letters .. I wonder if they carry any meaning at all? Cheers."



The first character looks like a botched "female".



女 = female, woman, girl; feminine



The second one can be either "dog" or "to protect" depends on it is a dot or stroke in the center.



戌 = eleventh sign of Chinese zodiac (The Dog, 7pm-9pm, west-northwest, September)



戍 = defend borders, guard frontiers



The last one is correct and it means "tiger"



寅 = third sign of Chinese zodiac (The Tiger, 3am-5am, east-northeast, January); to respect, reverence; respectfully



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5 comments:

  1. AnonymousDecember 7, 2004 at 2:41 PM

    I always wonder what the characters on the random choinoiserie/japonesque items I buy mean. I've decided that they should say "stupid american buy this!" or something to that effect. Unfortunately they are most likely nothing at all *sigh*.

    ReplyDelete
  2. adlandDecember 7, 2004 at 3:52 PM

    I actually had a t-shirt once that a japanese friend (whom I trust) bought for me. He was happy to inform me that he got it in new york and that it read "I am a stupid gajin". I wore it with pride. ;)

    ReplyDelete
  3. tianDecember 7, 2004 at 4:37 PM

    馬鹿外人?

    sweet.

    馬 = horse
    鹿 = deer
    外 = outside, foreign
    人 = person

    ReplyDelete
  4. terryDecember 8, 2004 at 1:44 PM

    I have been enjoying this site for some time now and felt I could possibly lend a comment to this particular "design".

    Perhaps it is trying to say, "Bitch Kitty".

    A female dog is a bitch. Nothing crazy there. Perhaps there is an actual kanji for Bitch, but I wouldn't know what it is. As for the "Kitty" part, that's a bit of a stretch from Tiger, but a tiger is a cat and almost all female cats are referred to as kitties. There are a lot of uses for Bitch Kitty from band names, car decals, cartoon characters, etc. Just a thought.

    ReplyDelete
  5. G. Val HartJune 28, 2006 at 9:39 AM

    Probably tried to say "Tiger Bitch"

    ...though, admittedly, I have no idea why...

    ReplyDelete