foo

Arnold M. Zwicky zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU
Mon Jan 8 19:25:29 UTC 2007


On Jan 8, 2007, at 11:12 AM, John Baker wrote:

>         According to the Smokey Stover website,
> http://www.smokey-stover.com/history.html, "What's Foo? My uncle found
> this word engraved on the bottom of a jade statue in San Francisco's
> China town. The word Foo means Good-Luck."

ah, the famous chinese "foo dogs" or "fu dogs", depending on what
system you use for englishing the chinese.  (there are also lions.)
"fu" is sometimes translated as 'happiness'.  statues of fu dogs (and
lions) protect temples and similar buildings.

arnold

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