"Wecker": an 'English' word used in China?

[LanDi Liu]

Nice work, Doug!  I hadn't thought to analyze the blocks further.

Maybe "wecker" is just a typo (that got spread around from dictionary to
dictionary electronically early on, because that's what they do here in
China) for "wrecker".  "Wreck" can certainly be used meaning a beat-up car.

On Sat, Feb 16, 2008 at 12:06 PM, Douglas G. Wilson <douglas at nb.net> wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Douglas G. Wilson" <douglas at NB.NET>
> Subject:      "Wecker": an 'English' word used in China?
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> In the course of explaining some weird Chinese-to-English
> translations, I found one which I can't explain: Chinese "laoyeche"
> ("lao3 ye2 che1") translated as "wecker".
>
> "Laoyeche" might be naively decomposed as "grandfather car", I think.
>
> Here is "wecker" (= "laoyeche") at Yahoo-HK, even pronounced for us:
>
> http://hk.dictionary.yahoo.com/search.html?s=wecker
>
> It's in some other on-line dictionaries/glossaries too.
>
> It apparently means "vintage/antique/classic car" and many examples
> appear on the Web, in English, but always or nearly always in English
> originating in China.
>
> Here it appears in item 12 (in Chinese):
>
>
> http://www.gowoo.com/yp/slist/site.aspx?id=203929&c=A16B02&u=http://auto.sina.com.cn/news/2007-09-17/2313310731.shtml&t=%B2%BB%CD%AC%CA%D0%B3%A1%C7%F8%D3%F2%BD%CE%B3%B5%CA%C7%C8%E7%BA%CE%B7%D6%C0%E0%B5%C4(3)<http://www.gowoo.com/yp/slist/site.aspx?id=203929&c=A16B02&u=http://auto.sina.com.cn/news/2007-09-17/2313310731.shtml&t=%B2%BB%CD%AC%CA%D0%B3%A1%C7%F8%D3%F2%BD%CE%B3%B5%CA%C7%C8%E7%BA%CE%B7%D6%C0%E0%B5%C4%283%29>
>
> Here are some weckers on display:
>
> http://english.peopledaily.com.cn/200506/10/eng20050610_189556.html
>
> Here a "wecker show" is advertised:
>
> http://www.autoharbin.cn/en/activities.htm
>
> There are many Web ads (in English) for toy/model weckers.
>
> But sometimes "wecker" seems to be equated with "jalopy"/"beat-up
> car". In this list "laoyeche" goes both ways ("beat-up car", "vintage
> car"):
>
>
> http://www.chineselanguage.org/forums/viewtopic.php?p=19933&sid=2d0e2974720a7f6abf2555d686fe8ce4
>
> So where does this word "wecker" come from? It's not in my OED as far
> as I can see. Not in other English dictionaries, at a glance. Not in
> my Chinese/English dictionaries either.
>
> ["Wecker" is German for "alarm clock", but I can't see any connection
> right away.]
>
> -- Doug Wilson
>
>
> --
> No virus found in this outgoing message.
> Checked by AVG Free Edition.
> Version: 7.5.516 / Virus Database: 269.20.6/1280 - Release Date: 2/15/2008
> 9:00 AM
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org
>



--
Randy Alexander
Jilin City, China

------------------------------------------------------------
The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org