#PutongWords: 铲屎官 (chǎnshǐguān): "officer of poop scooping", a self-derogatory title Chinese pet owners give themselves which refers to the sense of being owned by their cats.

As it happens the Chinese pets market is experiencing explosive growth.

#PutongWords: 断片 (duànpian) "interrupted film", originally referred to when a movie suddenly stopped playing unexpectedly.

Today it means blacking out from drinking, and it's a superior metaphor as "black out" implies only loss of sight whereas 断片is truncated narrative.

#PutongWords: 牛仔裤 (niúzǎikù) "cowboy pants", refers to jeans.

I love that whoever came up with the Chinese word for jeans chose to tell an origin story rather than translate it a phonetically, so that every pair comes with that sense of adventure and built in coolness.

#PutongWords: 自行车 (zìxíngchē) “auto traveling vehicle”, refers to bicycle.

That sounds rather like "automobile", for whatever reason, this Mandarin term for bicycle describes cars.

#PutongWords: 单车 (dānchē) “single vehicle” is more popular than 自行车 these days.

三轮车 (sānlúnchē) "three wheeled vehicle" is tricycle, but the obvious name for bicycles, 二轮车 (erlúnchē) "two wheeled vehicle" never made it