Talk:bonsai

RFV discussion: February–April 2015

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bonsai

Kiwima (talk • contribs) added an interjection sense in this edit, with a defintion of “A cry before jumping out at or attacking something.”

Isn't that banzai instead? Do people actually use bonsai in English with this meaning? ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 07:36, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

There is a great deal of confusion on that matter among most Americans, and some books do seem to reference this, but I don't think it's a real sense; depends whether you count something like the example on page 144 of Weirdsville USA: The Obsessive Universe of David Lynch by Paul Woods: "Suddenly distracted by a bonsai plant, Gordon mistakes the Japanese war cry ('Banzai!') in WWII movies: 'BONSAI!' he hollers […] ". —Μετάknowledge^{discuss/deeds} 07:53, 22 February 2015 (UTC)

• Looks like Kiwima changed it to a {{misspelling of}} (and I just added the template). I'm fine with that rendering. My remaining question is whether the misspelling belongs under the same etymology heading, since the banzai sense has nothing to do with Middle Chinese bowl + plant. ‑‑ Eiríkr Útlendi │ Tala við mig 16:15, 9 March 2015 (UTC)

• The {{rfv}} template was removed several weeks ago, and the etymologies have now been split, so I'm striking the heading. —Mr. Granger (talk • contribs) 16:59, 6 April 2015 (UTC)