Editors Note: Regardless of whether you have been studying Chinese for years, or you don’t know your “屁股”(pigu) from your“臂肘”(bizhou), chances are you have heard some Chinese words before. Some of the words are quite obviously of Chinese origin, while some others might surprise you. Below, is a translated and annotated list of Chinese words that have made their way into America’s daily lexicon. The list was originally found at the Chinese website gcpnews.com.

1) Confucius (kǒngzǐ 孔子 or kǒngfūzǐ 孔夫子)
Confucius is the founder of Confucianism, the dominant Chinese philosophy for approximately 2,000 years, which is widely considered to be the cornerstone of traditional Chinese culture. Confucianism is a series of social ethics that teach the “proper relationships” to hold in Chinese society, and it is still very prominent on a subconscious level today. Think about that the next time you hear someone talking about “losing face”.

2) Lao-tzu (Lǎozǐ 老子)
The “Yin” to Confucius’s “Yang”, Lao-tzu is the founder of Taoism, the Chinese philosophy that advocates humility and religious piety. Taoism, as compared to Confucianism, is much less concerned with “social relationships” and more concerned with finding meaning in “everything that is and is not”, and so on. The Chinese character literally means "Old” + “Written Words", which suggests that Lao-tzu was actually a mythical character and not a real person.

3) Tao Te Ching (dàodéjīng《道德经》)
If you have ever dabbled in philosophy or taken an East Asian Studies course, you must have encountered the “Tao Te Ching”, which is the primary source for learning about the virtues of Taoism (Lao-tzu is claimed to have written it). Although the book is short, only about 5,000 Chinese characters, it is very dense, and doesn’t make a lot of sense. For example, it opens with: “The Way that can be told of is not the true way; the names that can be named are not the true names”. Sit back and think about what that means for a few minutes. The Chinese character means something along the lines of "the way of virtue" or "virtuous path". The "dào" (道）character means: way, path, principle, doctrine, etc.; the "dé" (德) character means: moral, virtues, heart, ethics, etc.; and the "jīng" (经) character means: a classic work.

4) Mah-jong (májiàng 麻将)
A four person Chinese game played with 136 rectangular pieces called tiles. The objective of the game is to collect winning sets of these tiles, and it is similar to the game “gin rummy”. The first mention of “Mah-jong” was in 1895, when an American anthropologist wrote a paper in which it was briefly discussed. The game was imported into the United States in the 1920s, and was first sold at Abercrombie & Fitch stores. Go figure. The Chinese origins of the game are "shrouded in mystery" with some people claiming that Confucius designed the game, and others claiming it was developed during the Ming Dynasty.

5) Bonsai (péngzāi 盆栽)
An ornamental tree or shrub grown in a pot and slowly cultivated over many years. Bonsai trees made their first Western appearance at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900, after which they slowly gained popularity in Europe and the United States. In Chinese, it literally means "grow in a pot", or "potted plant". These plants were first used in China over 1,000 years ago, later spreading to Japan sometime during the 12th or 13th century. 

6) Ginseng （rénshēn 人参)
A herb with various tonic and medical purposes, which is native to East Asia and North America. Although this plant is from the Genus "Panax", no one calls it that anymore because Ginseng sounds way more cool (actual scientific/historic reasons unknown). The "rén" (人) character means person, and the "shēn" (参) character is a kind of herb. It was supposedly given the name "rénshēn" because of the forked roots’ resemblance to a person.

7) "Long time, no see" (hǎojiǔbujiàn 好久不见)
An informal greeting saying that it has been a long time since we last saw each other. The Oxford English Dictionary states that this phrase originated in the United States as "a jocular imitation of broken English", which I think may be a nice way of saying that we were being racist. It is directly translated as “Long-time-no-see”. Although there are no Chinese words in the English phrase, it is generally acknowledged that it came from a popular Chinese saying of the same meaning.
 

Related links
9 English Words “Borrowed” from Chinese
Ten Influential Chinese Words "Borrowed" by the English Language
The 7 Hurdles in Mastering Chinese

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Keywords: Chinese words in America’s lexicon studying Chinese language surprising meanings of Chinese words