GILNOOSY

Word of the Week

A feature wherein TileHead highlights a word that is is especially interesting or unusual (and, incidentally, useful in Scrabble play):

GILNOOSY

(unscramble the letters to form this week's word...)

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(answer below, after a little more spoiler space....)

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This week's word is...

SINOLOGY n. pl. -GIES

• Definition: the study of China or the Chinese; the study of Chinese culture, history, language, or literature (sometimes capitalized)

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• Related Forms: SINOLOGUE (n. a student or specialist in sinology), SINOLOGICAL (adj. of or pertaining to sinology)

TileHead says:

The sino- root (meaning "China" or "Chinese") arrived in English after a long journey through other languages and cultures: from the Late Latin Sinae we can trace it back to the Greek Sinai and then to the Arabic Sin, which probably formed it after the Chinese Ch'in (or Qi'n), the name of the fourth dynasty in China (c. 221-207 BC), during which the country was politically united and powerful.

Attention to sinological matters is on the rise, given China's increasingly important role on the world stage, though the academic discipline is now usually called simply "China Studies."

To understand what role China will, can and must play in shaping the world order, we need to understand China more deeply and engage China more frankly at all levels. I believe that it is time for a new sinology.
– Kevin Rudd, article in the Wall Street Journal (April 2010)

Although Chinese and Western comparatists know that modern Chinese literature is an integral part of world literature, its study has been confined mainly to sinological circles.
– Wang Ning, article in Modern Language Quarterly (March 2008)

 Speaking of sinological matters, February 3rd marks the New Year in the Chinese LUNISOLAR calendar system.  It will be the year of the Rabbit in the Chinese zodiac.