On a horse...

Undoubtedly, one of my favorite Chinese terms is "马上," (mǎshàng) which means immediately or right away. Now the reason why I like this phrase isn't because I'm an impatient person (although I am), it's because when you directly translate the characters 马 (mǎ) and 上 (shàng)  it means "horse" and "on," respectively.  Meaning, whenever someone tells you something (or someone）is immediately coming (马上来 mǎshàng lái），that speaker is literally saying the thing/person is coming on a horse, i.e. it's coming as quickly as it can. Since for a long time historically horses were the fastest mode of transportation, it makes sense that saying something is coming on a horse would logically mean it's coming right away and as fast as it/he/she can.

 The term 马上 (mǎshàng) is hardly the only term in Chinese that have an occasionally humerous, yet logical literal translations that somehow relate to a larger or different term. In fact, most terms in Chinese make some sort of sense when broken down character by character partially in order to make terms more easy to remember (aside from terms that are phonetic translations of foreign things or places). Here are a few additional examples:

1. 马上(mǎshàng)

• Character-by-character translation: On a horse
• Actual translation: Immediately, right away

2. 出租车 (chūzū chē)

• Character-by-character translation: Rent-out car
• Actual translation: Taxi

3. 火腿 (huǒtuǐ)

• Character-by-character translation: Fire leg
• Actual translation: Ham

4. 牛仔裤 (niúzǎikù)

• Character-by-character translation: Cowboy pants
• Actual translation: Jeans

Anyways, that's your Chinese linguistics lesson for today.  Have a good weekend.