Aug. 5, 2025
The dog days of summer
I'm a little curious about the English idiom "dog days". I know it means 三伏天 in Chinese.
The character "伏" has a human on the left and a dog on the right, indicating that dogs can protect humans. This is the original meaning of the 伏 period.
So, is it a coincidence between the English idiom and the Chinese idiom? Or it's a translation from Chinese, which dates back approximately 2700 years.
我对英语里“dog days”有点好奇。我知道它在中文里是“三伏天”的意思。
中文里的“伏”字，左边是人字旁，右边是狗，表示狗能保护人。这是伏天的原意。
那么，这是英语习语和汉语习语之间的巧合呢？还是说它是源自汉语的翻译，这个汉语的表达可追溯到大约 2700 年前。
The dog days of summer
I'm a little curious about the English idiom "dog days".
You probably already know this, but the idiom is “dog days of summer.” “Dog days” almost always occurs with “of summer” or “of [month]” (e.g., “the dog days of August.”
I know it means 三伏天 in Chinese.
The character "伏" has a human on the left and a dog on the right, indicating that dogs can protect humans.
This is the original meaning of the 伏 period.
You seem to be saying that the original meaning of 伏天 is “dogs can protect humans.” Have I understood this correctly?
So, is it a coincidence between the English idiom and the Chinese idiom?
Or it's a translation from Chinese, which (or: that) dates back approximately 2700 years.
Since this expands on the preceding question, it would read better if it were also worded as a question:
“Or is it a translation from Chinese that dates back approximately 2700 years?”
Feedback
I don’t know the answer to your question. I wasn’t familiar with the expression “三伏天” until I read this post. Thanks you for teaching me. :-)
So, is it a coincidence betweenthat the English idiom and the Chinese idiom are the same?
Or it'ss it a translation from Chinese, which dates back approximately 2700 years.?
"it's" is an abbreviation of "it is" - it can't be used for "is it"
Feedback
I did some googling and the etymology of the English naming comes from Ancient Greek (recorded in ~700BC) via Latin and apparently there's some suspicion that it may have come from Egypt prior to that.
I checked Chinese wikipedia via google translate and it seems to attribute the dog connection to the romans, so it seems there is a common ancestor to the naming in either ancient Greece or Rome that both languages borrowed.
Aug. 6, 2025
Thank you!
That's really interesting! In China, the earliest written records date back to the 2nd year of Emperor Qin Degong's reign, who was one of the ancestors of the Qin Dynasty (676 BC).
I couldn't find the links between 三伏天 and ancient Greece or Rome in the Chinese history books, but if what you're saying is something that actually happened, then how did this kind of communication occur in 24 years, and how could this concept convince those stubborn people at that time?
Aug. 6, 2025
I think it's worth considering that we only have a small percentage of writing from Rome, and mostly from the point of view of the wealthy and upper class. I imagine the same is true for ancient China. So something appearing first in the records in a certain year doesn't mean that people weren't using it for 100+ years already.
There's also civilizations from north africa or the middle east which have less surviving writing than either Rome or China, so could also have spread from/through these places.
The dog days of summer
I'm a little curious about the English idiom "dog days".
I know it means 三伏天 in Chinese.
The character "伏" has a human on the left and a dog on the right, indicating that dogs can protect humans.
This is the original meaning of the 伏 period.
Or it' is a translation from Chinese, which dates back approximately 2700 years.
Aug. 5, 2025
It was fine also how you wrote it.
Aug. 6, 2025
Thank you so much!
Have a nice day!
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The dog days of summer This sentence has been marked as perfect! This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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I'm a little curious about the English idiom "dog days". This sentence has been marked as perfect! I'm a little curious about the English idiom "dog days". You probably already know this, but the idiom is “dog days of summer.” “Dog days” almost always occurs with “of summer” or “of [month]” (e.g., “the dog days of August.” |
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I know it means 三伏天 in Chinese. This sentence has been marked as perfect! This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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The character "伏" has a human on the left and a dog on the right, indicating that dogs can protect humans. This sentence has been marked as perfect! This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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This is the original meaning of the 伏 period. This sentence has been marked as perfect! This is the original meaning of the 伏 period. You seem to be saying that the original meaning of 伏天 is “dogs can protect humans.” Have I understood this correctly? |
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So, is it a coincidence between the English idiom and the Chinese idiom? So, is it a coincidence This sentence has been marked as perfect! |
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Or it's a translation from Chinese, which dates back approximately 2700 years. Or it Or i "it's" is an abbreviation of "it is" - it can't be used for "is it" Or it's a translation from Chinese, which (or: that) dates back approximately 2700 years. Since this expands on the preceding question, it would read better if it were also worded as a question: “Or is it a translation from Chinese that dates back approximately 2700 years?” |
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