Dimsum: dot your heart
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Nick Tursi spotted this shop in Korea:
Haewon Cho tells me that three characters are pronounced as jeomjeomsim in Korean, and that jeomsim means lunch in Korean. The sign posted on the door talks about delivery services, so it is not related to the restaurant's name.
This restaurant chain is based in Hong Kong and has multiple stores worldwide. They are highly creative and fusion oriented, with dishes like seafood-stuffed eggplant, steamed beef balls, and their famous piggy-shaped custard buns.
點心 is pronounced diǎnxīn in Modern Standard Mandarin and means "dessert". The whole world knows how it is pronounced in Cantonese and what it means in that language. It is pronounced temX sim in Middle Sinitic (ca. 600 AD).
First appeared during the Tang dynasty, e.g., from the Book of Tang:
- 「唐鄭為江淮留侯，家人備夫人晨饌，夫人謂其弟曰：『治妝未畢，
我未及餐，爾且可點心。』」 - Tang Zheng was the official for the Jianghuai region. (One day), after the servants prepared the morning meal, Tang's wife said to his brother, 'I have not finished doing my makeup. You can have some snacks (lit. refresh your hearts) before I am ready to eat.'
Think about that.
Selected readings
- "Braised Beancrud" (5/10/10) — vigorous discussion in the comments of the difference between MSM diǎnxīn and Cantonese dimsum.
- "Sweets and snakes" (2/12/21)
- "Delicious snakes " (2/10/13) — in a Chinese hotel lobby
Philip Taylor said,
September 26, 2024 @ 4:39 am
Interesting (to my mind) is that Google Translate interprets "點心" as "dessert" but "點 心" [note interpolated space] as "snack". Do the two elements each have an individual meaning, Victor ? I know that the alternative form, "yum cha" means "drink tea" but can "點心" be separated in an analogous way ? Also, why "refresh your hearts" [plural] and not the more regular "refresh your heart" [singular] ?
Jonathan Smith said,
September 26, 2024 @ 9:55 am
Early occurrences of "點心" (etc., etc., etc.) are of much interest. Thus, as has been pointed out, LanguageLog shouldn't be downstream of (e.g.) Wiktionary. Here is an (attempted) link to an actual occurrence of "點心" in an earlyish (Song-period) text. Is this what the interwebs, thus Wiktionary, thus LL, is talking about? IDK
能改齋漫錄: 十八卷 — 點心
Chris Button said,
September 26, 2024 @ 8:55 pm
Looks like they've crammed all three into the compound character-cum-logo on the left.
Victor Mair said,
September 26, 2024 @ 9:13 pm
Yes, Chris, that's one way to look at it, but it could be their seal.