Love Ache
Reader Michael Parten emails:
"This tattoo [shown above] was given to a friend, it is suppose to mean 'love', but he has tried to find it, and has been unsuccessful, could you please help out in identifying it."
疼 by itself usually means "ache" or "pain". Even though Unihan database has listed "love" as one of the definitions for 疼, as in 偏疼 which means "favoritism". There is also 心疼, which literally means "heart ache (for)".
After I sent Michael with the information I have gathered, he replies:
"Well thanks for your help, I don't think he, his sister, nor his niece which all got the same symbol will be too happy, but now they will know the truth, thanks."
Update: Merry informed me that 疼 has been used to mean "love" as in: 他还是那么(心)疼老婆. But just by itself without any contextual information, it would be odd to make a "love" connection.
posted by tian at
11:13 PM
4 Comments:
I've seen 疼 used to mean love quite alot on mainland Chinese message boards and on Chinese TV shows lately, as in: 他还是那么疼老婆，which I saw on a website just this morning talking about a Taiwanese musician's great relationship with his wife.
Whoa. Spam has reached the Blogger comment page.
Anyway, I agree, without context, it is difficult to just see the word and think of the "love" meaning of the word. The context is more in how 疼 is used in the sentence, and doesn't require it to be used in combination with other words like 心or 愛 (but admittedly, 愛 would have been the best choice to mean "love").
Still, the "love" aspect of the word is still in use contemparily, so Michael's friend can at least take comfort in that. In common usage, it's probably best translated as "dote," such as 他很疼他的女兒 (He really dotes on his daughter).
Yep yep, I do agree that by itself it would have a closer meaning to "dote" and it is kinda far from love. Although I was inclined to translate the meaning at first glance as pain.
Yes, it's kind of like saying "I ache for you." But without context, it simply means "ache".
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