犀
犀 – Xi1 – Rhinoceros
Really, 犀牛 -Xi1 Niu2 – Rhinoceros. (the second word means “Cow”.)
This is today’s word because it appears in this expression: 心有靈犀 – Xin1 You3 Ling2 Xi1 – Heart Has Soul Rhinoceros!?!?! Jenny says it means something a little like “great minds think alike”: it’s used when two people happen to do the same thing, because of some sort of spiritual or psychic link.
Full disclosure: It didn’t appear in any of my dictionaries, but according to SYSTRAN, it looks like 靈犀 might mean “cleverness”, which makes this expression slightly less strange.
REPLY))
Well, according to my Chinese dictionary, in the traditional Chinese myth , the rhinoceros are mysterious animals that can sense each other in a long distance. Then the poets used the myth as a metaphor to say that, “there are rhinoceros in both our hearts,” that means people can feel each other’s feeling without saying any word. However, although Chinese say “心有靈犀” in common, most of them have already forgot the myth in long tim ago.
REPLY))
Wow! That’s so cool! I’ll do my best to popularize this expression in the English speaking world.