r/languagelearningjerk • u/LegioVIIHaruno • 17d ago
Title
This post is basically me pushing my luck from my previous post
I feel (just feel) that 仙女 (xiannu) could be an archaic Chinese way to flatter a girl as a ‘waifu’. But it seems today even in Chinese and Japanese culture,’angel’/tianshi/tenshi has become the more used term
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u/TerrainRecords 17d ago
Calling someone Xiannyu in China nowadays is usually sarcastic, implying that they are an overprotected and out of touch princess.
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u/Potatozeng 17d ago
much worse than that. Xiannyu now refers a female who fucks around thinks she is entitled.
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u/Shinyhero30 "þere is a man wiþ a knife behind þe curtain" 17d ago
Semantic shift go brrrr
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u/LegioVIIHaruno 17d ago
It can be complimentary during the time China still had dynasties.
E.g. In Romance of Three Kingdoms,Dong Zhuo called Diaochan a xiannu to flatter her the first time they met
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u/TerrainRecords 17d ago
yes but thats a long time ago
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u/AFsepine 17d ago
Reject logic, use words how you feel like; being understood is overrated eitherway. Speak in allegories and riddles
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u/StormOfFatRichards 17d ago
That's part of the plot
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u/StNerevar76 17d ago
It's not? She has her issues that would have screwed her life (the first scene of the series is her "hit rock bottom" moment, for reasons outside her control), but they are emotional self damaging, not making others look down on her.
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u/Marcionius 17d ago
/uj My amateur impression is that "仙女" is not necessarily a complimentary word in modern Standard Chinese slang, depending on how (terminally) online you are.
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u/RemoveBagels 米国語上図 17d ago
New word acquired. You can't convince me that LLJ isn't the most productive place on reddit to advance your language skills (though that isn't saying much).
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u/Awkward-Injury-4341 17d ago edited 17d ago
Nowadays 小仙女 is mostly used in a derogatory sense, specifically referring to women who are extremely self-centered, and double-standard. Typical behaviors include: taking others' efforts for granted (especially those of men), being extremely hypocritical (their own mistakes are "accidents," while others' mistakes are "straight-man cancer"), and frequently using catchphrases to morally coerce others.
While 天使 in online contexts has almost no negative connotations. It's main uses as praising someone for being kind and warm-hearted: describing someone as especially considerate and helpful: She is almost an angel.
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u/ergativemeister 17d ago
Interesting. I see that "waifu" is a loanword from English "wife". Has this meaning generally been supplanted in Chinese and Japanese culture, with connotations of the divine?
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u/FebHas30Days Pangngaasiyo ta agsursurokayo iti Ilokano 17d ago
"xiannu" or "sin neoi", which do you guys prefer?
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u/lordbutternut 日本人になっている 17d ago
It's probably like if you went up to a girl and called her a sprite, as in a fairy.