Snakehead

[Baker, John]

The similarity to coyote, another animal term with the same meaning, is also striking.
 
John Baker
 

	-----Original Message----- 
	From: American Dialect Society on behalf of Douglas G. Wilson 
	Sent: Sun 5/22/2005 10:07 PM 
	To: ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU 
	Cc: 
	Subject: Snakehead
	
	

	>We have a draft snakehead entry in the New Partridge for 'snakehead' but
	>continue to question its inclusion because it is a literal translation
	>from the Chinese.
	
	I know that "snakehead" is routinely SAID to be a literal translation of a
	Chinese word for "people-smuggler". But it looks a little too sexy, and too
	reminiscent of English "wolf's-head" = "outlaw". Can it be verified that
	there is indeed an appropriate Chinese word? Googling with the likely fish
	name in Chinese I get references to fish. Googling with "snake head" in
	Chinese I find some references to the fish and also some references to
	"people-smugglers" but the latter only in news items from the US. Of course
	there are thousands of Google hits -- of which I could examine only a few
	-- and my incompetence in Chinese is a problem too.
	
	My thanks to anybody who can show me (in Chinese text) the original Chinese
	word meaning "people-smuggler" ... of which this "snakehead" is supposedly
	a calque.
	
	-- Doug Wilson