
While discussing the difference between airships and zeppelins with some King’s Empire colleagues this morning, a new phrase that I hadn’t seen before emerged: ??.
The two characters are ? (
t?ng, to recline) and ? (
qi?ng, gun). In combination, this phrase means to be shot and killed while in a reclined position – which means to be innocently struck by surprise.
This came about when some colleagues noticed that a new unit in King’s Empire, the ?? (
f?i t?ng, flying boat) was named Zeppelin rather than Airship. Unusually, it wasn’t me who translated the name of this unit, so the question publicly posed to me was: “Why would you name the ?? a Zeppelin? Is that the best word?”
The answer is, I did not, and Airship is more appropriate. To which another colleague replied: “Brother Charlie was ??’d (??????,
chá g? chéng g?ng t?ng qi?ng), or innocently targeted.
When I asked what the phrase meant, this is how it was explained to me: ??????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????“???????????”??? ??????!”