| Change log entry 53990 | |
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| Processed by: | richwarm (2014-06-03 00:22:42 GMT) |
| Comment: |
<< review queue entry 51778 - submitted by 'tar_ba_gan' >> Came up when talking to a 12yo girl studying in Guangzhou, with parents living in Hongkong; she lives with one of the girl teachers of the study center, specifically she said that the teacher is not a ganma (godmother) but the given word; verified via google translate. =============================================== Editor: I think you are suggested a long-winded explanation of what you mean by "foster mother" because you are thinking of that term as it is narrowly defined in Wiktionary ("female adult who cares for a child who has been placed in foster care") rather than the more general definition given in Webster ("woman that feeds or brings up another's child"). We could attempt to explain what sort of foster mother is meant, but to be consistent we might need to rework a large number of other, related entries, such as 養母, 義父 etc. There are quite a few terms for family-like relationships between people who are not related by blood. The initial character of these is often 養, 寄, 誼, 義, 乾, 契, or 保. Here is a collection of such terms from the Wikipedia article 乾親. Many of these terms are not found in dictionaries, and the article suggests that there are regional variations in usage within China. 常見稱謂 誼父母、誼子女的稱謂繁多，於不同地區也有不同的稱謂： 男性長輩：誼父、義父、乾爹、乾爸、乾大、契父、契爺、契爸、保爺等 女性長輩：誼母、義母、乾媽、乾娘、契母、契媽、契娘、保娘等 男性幼輩：誼子、義子、乾兒子、乾兒、契兒、契仔、契子等 女性幼輩：誼女、義女、乾女兒、乾閨女、契女等 One dictionary has the following relationship words that begin with 契, but not 契爸 or 契媽, for example. 契弟 qìdì ◊ (Guangzhou) sworn (younger) brother 契友 qìyǒu [ n ] ◊ bosom friend 契父 qìfù ◊ adoptive father 契交 qìjiāo ◊ close friendship 契兄弟 qìxiōngdì ◊ sworn bothers 契厚 qìhòu ◊ close (like friendship) 契母 qìmǔ ◊ (Guangzhou) adoptive mother 至契好友 zhìqìhǎoyǒu ◊ closest friend(s) 契兄 qìxiōng ◊ (Guangzhou) sworn elder brother (None of these is in CC-CEDICT, by the way.) |
| Diff: |
# 契媽 契妈 [qi4 ma1] /foster mother (a woman in full care of a child because of special relationships between her, the child's parents, and the child; suggesting that the parents are away on business for long periods of time)/ + 契媽 契妈 [qi4 ma1] /foster mother/ |