Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Language/2011 May 29

= May 29 =

Can't recognise this Chinese character
I have been trying to use tools on my Iphone or like chinese-tools.com to find what this character is, but my drawing is so bad that I can't find anything looking remotely like it. Can some please identify it for me? Here is a photo of it Many thanks in advance for your help. --Lgriot (talk) 10:59, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I don't speak Chinese at all, but my suspicion is that it's supposed to say fú ("fortune" / "blessing"), per this. Gabbe (talk) 12:35, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
 * ThankS!!! I couldn't get the strokes right on the left part, which was making my iphone confused. --Lgriot (talk) 12:51, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
 * Heh, yup, that's "blessing". Probably one of the most common Chinese characters, actually—people put it on good luck charms and stick it all over their walls everywhere. Good catch. --dragfyre_ ʞןɐʇ c 14:53, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
 * 福, if you need to copy and paste. r ʨ anaɢ (talk) 15:08, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
 * See wikt:福. We have a related article at Fu Lu Shou. --PalaceGuard008 (Talk) 00:54, 30 May 2011 (UTC)
 * It's the Kanteiryu style of Edomoji. See this Oda Mari (talk) 08:43, 30 May 2011 (UTC)

French tennis terminology
Hi, I've just been doing some Googling, and apparently the French way of saying "all", as in "15 all" or "five (games) all", is either "A" or "partout". So, for example, one would say "quinze A" or "quinze partout". In one place it seems to be suggested that the former is short for "quinze à quinze", but elsewhere people seem to write it as a capital "A", which seems a bit odd. Does anyone know the origin of this "A"? Oh, also, what is the difference, if any, between "A" and "partout" in this context? 86.148.153.145 (talk) 20:35, 29 May 2011 (UTC)
 * According to a former version of our article Tennis score (which now doesn't include this anymore, probably because it was original research), X-à is for points in a game and X-partout is for games in a set, so "quinze-partout" shouldn't really be possible. 80.123.210.172 (talk) 07:47, 30 May 2011 (UTC)
 * This was covered on the BBC tennis commentary the other day in the second round Andy Murray match. The question was, why do they say "quinze-a" and "egalite" seemingly interchangeably? The answer given was that "quinze-a" is used the first time it happens, and "egalite" is used thereafter. I can't remember whether it was the first time in a set, or in that game. --TammyMoet (talk) 08:01, 30 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Here are the rules in French. It seems that we cannot say “15A”, or "30 A". The word “partout" is used for games (deux jeux partout) or for sets (deux manches partout). But, the first time in a game the players are at “40 all”, we say “40 A” and the next times “égalité”. AldoSyrt (talk) 07:59, 30 May 2011 (UTC)
 * I agree about the use of “égalité” for the English deuce. But if you listen to the umpires they are definitely using the "30 A". I shall be listening today to verify this! --TammyMoet (talk) 08:04, 30 May 2011 (UTC)
 * According to the French Wiki Lexique du tennis, you are right: 15 A, 30A are the correct terms. I'd rather give you a link to the "official French rules".— AldoSyrt (talk) 08:37, 30 May 2011 (UTC)


 * In the same document there are the rules of the jeu de paume, more precisely "jeu de courte paume". It may be of interest to notice that (in rule 22), if the two players have three points it is announced à deux (or égalité). It is sometimes said that à deux is the origin of the "A" in "40A". AldoSyrt (talk) 08:16, 30 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Hence the term "deuce", perhaps? Meaning that (1) the two players are at equal score; and (2) one player needs two consecutive points to win the game. The oddity is that the term "deuce" doesn't show up until it's 40-all, when in fact its already "deuce" at 30-all. ←Baseball Bugs What's up, Doc? carrots→ 11:04, 30 May 2011 (UTC)


 * Thanks for the replies! Do I understand from "It is sometimes said that à deux is the origin of the 'A'" that the origin is not completely clear? 86.160.219.177 (talk) 11:26, 30 May 2011 (UTC)


 * I'm now listening to the Nadal-Ljubicic match at the French Open championship, and the umpire has been using the "-a" form from the first point. There haven't been many deuces yet but the term "egalite" has been used at that point. I would also comment that the origin of the normal English terms used for scoring isn't at all clear, so it wouldn't surprise me if the origin of the French terms isn't that clear either. --TammyMoet (talk) 12:12, 30 May 2011 (UTC)