{"id":64159,"date":"2024-05-24T08:31:13","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T13:31:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=64159"},"modified":"2024-05-24T13:20:55","modified_gmt":"2024-05-24T18:20:55","slug":"shameful-grass","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu\/nll\/?p=64159","title":{"rendered":"Shameful grass"},"content":{"rendered":"

Liwei Jiao sent in this photograph from a park in Hefei, China:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Such notices (do not disturb; tiny grass is sleeping \/ dreaming \/ smiling) are virtually a genre unto themselves (see\u00a0here<\/a>), with many variants and classics that can suck you in for an afternoon, and since I haven't written about them for awhile, and since this one can teach us something interesting about botany, I decided to write this brief post about it.<\/p>\n

xi\u01ceo c\u01ceo h\u00e1nxi\u016b xi\u00e0o<\/p>\n

\u5c0f\u8349\u542b\u7f9e\u7b11<\/p>\n

the tiny grass is smiling shyly \/ bashfully<\/p>\n

q\u01d0ng n\u00edn w\u00f9 d\u01cer\u01ceo<\/p>\n

\u8bf7\u60a8\u52ff\u6253\u6270\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 (\u60a8 is honorific 2nd person)<\/p>\n

please don't disturb<\/p>\n

Inept use of the embarrassingly creepy Chinese adverb for smiling here is further muddled by the fact that it serves as a descriptor for grass to form the plant name h\u00e1nxi\u016b c\u01ceo \u542b\u7f9e\u8349\u00a0\u00a0(\"mimosa<\/a> [Mimosa pudica<\/i>]\" also called sensitive plant, sleepy plant, action plant, humble plant, touch-me-not, or shameplant\") — it swiftly draws back and closes up if you so much as touch it).\u00a0 A lot more could be said about the plant and the cocktail named after it, but that's a rabbit hole I'd rather not go down this afternoon.<\/p>\n

Selected reading<\/b><\/p>\n