WOTD: Bags

My worldly possessions

I was working Korean in Duolingo and I came across the following:

공공칠가방
gong-gong-chil ga-bang

I immediately recognized the root 가방 as “bag” (which in my semantic space is centered around the prototypical schoolbag) and since it was a Numbers lesson, the first three syllables correspond to 0-0-7. So, a “James Bond bag,” or a briefcase.

Chinese, unfortunately, is not so creative in its description of briefcase, the two main ways of saying which are 公文包 (gong1wen1bao1) and 皮包 (pi2bao1). 包 works in Chinese as a general term for bags or anything with wrapping (e.g. see the Oscar nominated animated short Bao), and the modifiers work by describing what is stored in the bag (公文, “public documents” or briefs if you will) or what the bag is usually made of (皮, “skin” i.e. leather).

I really like the word 皮包 (pi2bao1) because it is also used in the compound word 皮包公司 (pi2bao1 gong1si1, “briefcase company”). As one can imagine, a company based out of a briefcase may not be the most reliable, so it refers to fly-by-night operations. Do be careful with 皮包, however, if you reverse the order of the characters, you refer to a portion of the male anatomy that is removed in a circumcision.

包 (bao1) is an extremely productive character making up 288 words in my master list of Chinese words. Ironically, however 包 is not used to describe luggage, which is 行李 (xing2li5, “travel plum(?)”). 李 is a strange character. Its base meaning is plum, it is a very common surname, and it shows up in the word 行李.


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