| Change log entry 41638 | |
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| Processed by: | richwarm (2012-06-05 05:38:48 GMT) |
| Comment: |
<< review queue entry 40655 - submitted by 'slacka' >> According to the CC-CEDICT Guidelines: American English should be used for the English definitions http://cc-cedict.org/wiki/format:syntax As a native American speaker, I am sure the place we get water from in the office, is called a “water cooler”. The wikipedia article on "water coolers" is also titled "Water Cooler" and not "Water Dispenser" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_cooler Rather than just telling you, that everyone here calls the water cooler, a "饮水机", which they do. I instead decided to look up the very model of Midea 饮水机 that's in front of me. Like the site below water coolers, are listed as 饮水机 http://www.zgdsgw.com/list-82.html While it's a subtle difference, but a "Water dispenser" can just dispense without cooling, or heating or performing any action like purifying. As Illustrated by this amazon search: http://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=680349011 Notice that the Amazon “water dispensers” are a superset of the “饮水机” . Now if I put in “water cooler” in the Amazon search. I get water coolers that look like I get in the Chinese sites under the 饮水机 heading in Chinese webstores. Granted, 饮水机 does not appear to be the most precise term. But if we call something a “water cooler” and the Chinese call it 饮水机. I think best to include it in the dictionary. Lastly, I just showed some native Chinese here this picture of a drinking fountain http://www.filtersfast.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/drinkingfountain.jpg It seemed to spark some debate. In this part of China, 饮水机does not appear to be the correct term. I'll make any appropriate updates once this is resolved. Editor: Regarding the comment "The wikipedia article on "water coolers" is also titled "Water Cooler" and not "Water Dispenser" " The linked Wikipedia articles are "飲水機" and, yes, "Water Cooler". But the fact that two articles are linked in Wikipedia does not mean that the two concepts are the same. We don't have a commonly-used word in English that exactly matches 飲水機, so there is no English Wikipedia article that truly corresponds to 飲水機. Matching 飲水機 to the "Water cooler" article is a case of linking to a *related* topic in the other language, rather than linking to the *same* topic. As you rightly point out, "drink dispenser" is not just another, less-common term "water cooler." I didn't include "water cooler" last time, partly because the Wikipedia article "Water cooler" made it sound like they were the same thing. The term 饮水机 covers various types of devices. See the following definition, which, like the Wikipedia entry, states explicitly that there are various kinds of 饮水机. It's not just devices that cool the water. 供給飲水的機器。多半具有自動過濾、煮沸等功能，種類繁多 So "water dispenser" is the most accurate definition as far as I can see. A term such as "water cooler" is more specific than 饮水机. It doesn't *mean* "water cooler" but it is, of course, used to refer to 饮水机 that happen to be water coolers, and of course water coolers are a very common and widespread type of 饮水机. If we are going to mention a specific type of 饮水机 in our definition ("water fountain") we should, by the same token, also include a more prevalent type -- the water cooler. I'll keep the "water dispenser" in the first position, because, although it's not the word that you will mostly want to use in *translating* 饮水机, that is the term which I think best indicates its *meaning*. I'll put "water cooler" before "drinking fountain" because it's more common. Some references for 饮水机 as "drinking fountain" ~ See top right corner of ~ http://quizlet.com/7625164/print/ 美國的飲水機幾乎都長下面這樣 -- see the pic of the drinking fountain half-way down the page at ~ http://www.wretch.cc/blog/nayuki0613/8033461 想喝水?自己来! Doggie Fountain狗狗饮水机 ~ http://www.1626.com/index.php?m=content&c=index&a=show&catid=211&id=135114 在种族隔离政策下甚至出现了白人公共厕所和白人专用饮水机；意在从组织中驱逐黑人的白人化运动。 "under segregation there were even white restrooms and white drinking fountains; a lily-white movement which would expel Negroes from the organization." etc. etc. |
| Diff: |
- 飲水機 饮水机 [yin3 shui3 ji1] /water dispenser/drinking fountain/ # + 飲水機 饮水机 [yin3 shui3 ji1] /water dispenser/drinking fountain/water cooler/ + 飲水機 饮水机 [yin3 shui3 ji1] /water dispenser/water cooler/drinking fountain/ |