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Lao is often use as a colloquial form of respect. So “ba” means “father”, so “lao ba” is kind of like “my old man”. “Lao ban” (ban meaning business owner / boss
by prewett 5y ago
Lao is often use as a colloquial form of respect. So “ba” means “father”, so “lao ba” is kind of like “my old man”. “Lao ban” (ban meaning business owner / boss) is “boss”. Wives might call their husband “lao gong”. I think “jiu4” is old as in the opposite of new (xin1), as in Jiujinshan (San Francisco, literal, old gold mountain).
- uranusjr 5y ago(In case anyone’s wondering, Xin Jinshan i.e. New Gold Mountain is Melbourne, but unlike the case of SF, that name did not stick.)
- dheera 5y agoYes, but "lao wai" is not actually a particularly respectful usage of "lao". It's usually said with the intent of excluding someone, which is inherently not a respectful thing to do. Respectful uses of "lao" are not used to exclude someone from the group. If it is absolutely necessary to refer to someone's exclusion for logistical (e.g. visa, legal) reasons the usual way to say it is 外國人，外籍人，外賓, the latter of which is usually the most formal and respectful.
- mc32 5y agoFor SF there are two translations, jio jin shan and san fan shi. It depends on the origin of the speaker.
- thaumasiotes 5y agoI have read that 旧金山 originated as the term for the mountain of silver the foreigners who came to trade silver for silk must have had somewhere. (They did have such a mountain - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Rico https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cerro_Rico ) "Gold" is, in this analysis, just a more respectful way to refer to silver. I'm curious when and how the name might have attached itself to San Francisco, which is not near Potosí.
- ummwhat 5y agoWouldn't it obviously have come from the California Gold Rush?