Creole languages (was Who is Eddy Peters?)

[Douglas G. Wilson]

> > Is "lose face" a calque from Chinese?
>
>The Shogakukan Random House Eng->Jpn dictionary gives it as so.

So does the OED. I find it believable. There were expressions along the
lines of "lose face", "lose countenance" in English quite a while back, but
as far as I can tell "face"/"countenance" tended to mean something like
"nerve" or "composure" rather than "reputation" or so. Any expert, please
correct me if necessary.

-- Doug Wilson