3 ms·

Does Xiaomi literally mean Little Rice? That's what my very limited mandarin would suggest

by cruzcampo 1y ago

rs186 1y ago
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_millet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_millet
iszomer 1y ago
Yes.
keepamovin 1y ago
That is what my literally also rather limited Chinese would suggest. haha But with many single characters in Chinese, a Chinese person will tell you, if you ask for what a single character means, something like, "Well it's not so easy to pin down the meaning of that one. Sometimes we use it like this, and sometimes like that." Sure, some characters have an easy meaning (for me, I think the rice in Mi is one of them!) but there's plenty where you cannot get a Chinese person to easily tell you what a single character means. I guess it's a little like, but not the same as, asking an English person to tell you, what any given "morpheme" (word part, like fac-) means. Hahaha. Not a perfect analogy tho! :) Here's this list of morphemes I found just now thinking about this: https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/16294/urlt/morphemeML.pdf https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/16294/urlt/morpheme... Seems incomplete list when you consider etymology of English words are often composed of parts from ages past! :)
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
os2warpman 1y ago
小米 little rice Yes. But it's more complicated than that.
kzz102 1y ago
Xiaomi can also mean millet. I think it's a reference to this Mao quote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millet_plus_rifles?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millet_plus_rifles?wprov=sfla1
- keepamovin 1y ago
  Wow, that's interesting. I guess that's like a US company being called "MRE". We would view that like a veteran's owned and operated company. Interesting. And all the products would be "MRE-Phone", "MRE-Pod", hehehe :)
- est 1y ago
  That's just a fun coicidence but in reality LeiJun and 12 others from Kingsoft Corp founded Xiaomi after they had a bowl of millet gruel. https://www.scmp.com/abacus/tech/article/3028654/documentary-provides-rare-glimpse-xiaomis-early-days https://www.scmp.com/abacus/tech/article/3028654/documentary...
  - kzz102 1y ago
    This is one of the things that everyone gets the reference, but it won't be good to admit it publicly. This quote is known to almost everyone born in that area, and it's the first thing that come to mind when you hear the name.
gandalfgreybeer 1y ago
Etymology of the brand name here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaomi#Name_etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaomi#Name_etymology
fenprace 1y ago
Mandarin speaker here. Literally, Yes. Xiaomi means 'little rice'. But in reality when people say xiaomi, they always refer to another kind of crop, foxtail millet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_millet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_millet). It is a traditional food and still very common in China and other place in Asia.

Does Xiaomi literally mean Little Rice? That's what my very limited mandarin would suggest

rs186 1y ago

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_millet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_millet

iszomer 1y ago

Yes.

keepamovin 1y ago

That is what my literally also rather limited Chinese would suggest. haha But with many single characters in Chinese, a Chinese person will tell you, if you ask for what a single character means, something like, "Well it's not so easy to pin down the meaning of that one. Sometimes we use it like this, and sometimes like that." Sure, some characters have an easy meaning (for me, I think the rice in Mi is one of them!) but there's plenty where you cannot get a Chinese person to easily tell you what a single character means. I guess it's a little like, but not the same as, asking an English person to tell you, what any given "morpheme" (word part, like fac-) means. Hahaha. Not a perfect analogy tho! :) Here's this list of morphemes I found just now thinking about this: https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/16294/urlt/morphemeML.pdf https://www.fldoe.org/core/fileparse.php/16294/urlt/morpheme... Seems incomplete list when you consider etymology of English words are often composed of parts from ages past! :)

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

os2warpman 1y ago

小米 little rice Yes. But it's more complicated than that.

kzz102 1y ago

Xiaomi can also mean millet. I think it's a reference to this Mao quote: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millet_plus_rifles?wprov=sfla1 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Millet_plus_rifles?wprov=sfla1

keepamovin 1y ago
Wow, that's interesting. I guess that's like a US company being called "MRE". We would view that like a veteran's owned and operated company. Interesting. And all the products would be "MRE-Phone", "MRE-Pod", hehehe :)
est 1y ago
That's just a fun coicidence but in reality LeiJun and 12 others from Kingsoft Corp founded Xiaomi after they had a bowl of millet gruel. https://www.scmp.com/abacus/tech/article/3028654/documentary-provides-rare-glimpse-xiaomis-early-days https://www.scmp.com/abacus/tech/article/3028654/documentary...
- kzz102 1y ago
  This is one of the things that everyone gets the reference, but it won't be good to admit it publicly. This quote is known to almost everyone born in that area, and it's the first thing that come to mind when you hear the name.

gandalfgreybeer 1y ago

Etymology of the brand name here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaomi#Name_etymology https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xiaomi#Name_etymology

fenprace 1y ago

Mandarin speaker here. Literally, Yes. Xiaomi means 'little rice'. But in reality when people say xiaomi, they always refer to another kind of crop, foxtail millet (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_millet https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxtail_millet). It is a traditional food and still very common in China and other place in Asia.