Character Of The Day

Máo. I've decided that I should wander more into the realm of the obscure when presenting these characters, so here it goes. This character, translated by itself, means yak. It’s part of one combination that I know of:

牦牛 – máoniú means yak

Last time I was in the beautiful city of 丽江 (LìJiāng), I bought a big bag of spicy dried yak. Unfortunately, I ate all of it. If anyone wants to send me some more, that would be awesome. Interestingly enough, www.zhongwen.com gives the definition of yak as 犁牛 (líniú), which doesn’t make much sense to me, as yaks don’t plow anything that I know of. Microsoft Pinyin IME 3.0 also recognizes 犁牛. So, who knows? All I know is that I bought 牦牛 and it’s damn tasty. Let me know what you think about this controversy. I’m out.