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A spring scale in Hong Kong shows conversions between metric system (in red), traditional Chinese unit (in green) and British Imperial Units (in blue). Jin (Chinese: 斤; pinyin: jīn), or gan in Cantonese, kin in Taiwanese and Japanese, also called "Chinese pound" or "catty", [a] is a traditional Chinese unit for weight measurement in East Asia.
The Chinese word for metre is 米 mǐ; this can take the Chinese standard SI prefixes (for "kilo-", "centi-", etc.). A kilometre, however, may also be called 公里 gōnglǐ, i.e. a metric lǐ. In the engineering field, traditional units are rounded up to metric units. For example, the Chinese word 絲 (T) or 丝 (S) sī is used to express 0.01 mm.
Like other similar measures such as tael and catty, the English word "mace" derives from Malay, in this case through Dutch maes, plural masen, from Malay mas which, in turn, derived from Sanskrit māṣa (माष), a word related to "mash," another name for the urad bean, and masha, a traditional Indian unit of weight equal to 0.97 gram. [5]
In Chinese, tael is written 兩 (simplified as 两) and has the Mandarin pronunciation liǎng. The phrase "half a catty, eight taels" ( Chinese : 半斤八兩 , bàn jīn, bā liǎng ) is still used to mean two options are exactly equivalent, similar to the English "six of one, half a dozen of the other".
From the name of the plant: some say the word came via the Japanese pronunciation, though 人参 now means 'carrot' in Japanese, while the modern word for 'ginseng' is 朝鮮人參, 'Korean carrot'. Go: Sino-Japanese 圍棋: igo: Japanese name for the Chinese board game, cf. Mandarin wéiqí. Guanxi: Mandarin 關係: guānxi
English name Chinese name Cantonese pronunciation Equivalent in other units Notes Year (Gregorian) 年: nin4 365 or 366 days Roughly follows a solar cycle. Historically, the Chinese refer to the return of the Sun in the winter solstice as "歲" (seoi3). Year (Chinese) 年: nin4 12 or 13 Chinese months
A Chinese-English Dictionary: 1892: Herbert Allen Giles' bestselling dictionary, 2nd ed. 1912 A Dictionary of the Chinese Language: 1815–1823: First Chinese-English, English-Chinese dictionary, Robert Morrison: A Syllabic Dictionary of the Chinese Language: 1874: First Chinese-English dictionary to include regional pronunciations, Samuel ...
In 1831, the Dutch East Indies authorities acknowledged local variances in the definition of the pikul. [9] In Hong Kong, one picul was defined in Ordinance No. 22 of 1844 as 133 + 1 ⁄ 3 avoirdupois pounds. [5] The modern definition is exactly 60.478982 kilograms. [3] The measure was and remains used on occasion in Taiwan where it is defined ...