Chinese Character Of The Day

Lùn. If you're into debate or academia, here's an interesting one for you. This character is one of those ones that can be used as both a noun and a verb. As a noun, it can be translated as opinion, essay, or theory. As a verb, it can be translated as to discuss, to consider, to determine, or to debate. It's made up of the simplified form of the 言(yán) radical, which can mean to speak, and 仑(lún), which can mean orderly and is also the phonetic component of this character. Makes a lot of sense to me. Now, let's take a look at how it's used.

不论 - búlún means regardless of
讨论 - tǎolún means to discuss
论语 - lúnyǔ is a name for Confucius' Analects
论文 - lúnwén means thesis, paper, or dissertation
评论 - pínglún means commentary or to comment
社论 - shèlún means editorial
结论 - jiélún means conclusion
公论 - gōnglún means public opinion

There's plenty more where this came from, so check out your dictionary or www.zhongwen.com for more combinations that involve this character. In other news, I recently downloaded a java flash card program from www.mandarintools.com. I've found it very useful, and it works for Cantonese too. So, that's it for today. Let me know if there's any questions, comments, or concerns. Later.