Why do Chinese like to add an old character before their surname when addressing someone?

In China, older people like to call themselves old husbands, old decays, and old bodies. These old words mean old. However, the Chinese character culture is broad and profound, and there is no single understanding of any character. It's the same with the old words.

Chinese men like to call their daughter-in-law their wife, which is not to say that their daughter-in-law is old and yellow. Rather, it means familiarity.

Just like Jiangxi people like to call old watches, Northeast people like to call old girls. It's not that they dislike each other, they are all words used to show cordiality and bring the relationship between the two closer.

Calling each other with old words belongs to a characteristic of China, Lao Ni, Lao Wang, Lao Li. When everyone heard this, they instantly felt cordial. It felt like an old friend who had lived together for more than ten years, and when I said hello, I smiled and blended in.

But think about it, if you say that, Mr. Ni, Mr. Wang, Mr. Li. How does it feel? My first feeling is that I am restrained, and I feel that the environment in which this conversation takes place should be in some kind of formal setting.

A formal occasion where everyone wears a suit and tie. If you use such an opening line to say hello to old friends. They will definitely be confused by the second monk.

Therefore, Chinese like to add an old character before the salutation, which is to express cordiality.

By the way, in addition to adding old characters, Chinese also like to add small characters, of course, small characters are used by elders to juniors, and the same is to express cordial and familiar meaning.

In general, Chinese culture is broad and profound, and each word has its fixed interpretation, but the usage of each word is not fixed. Similar to old, small these words still have a lot of interesting uses, here will not be discussed one by one, in short, pay more attention to life will find a lot of similar usage, more care about life, Chinese culture is not so simple to understand.

Chinese culture is broad and profound, especially the various folk customs, dialects and customs of speaking, which vary from place to place. As for why an old word is added before the salutation, it is nothing more than to bring the relationship closer and show cordiality.

Because the old word represents a relatively long time, it also represents a kind of status and respect.

For example, an old friend is a friend who has been friends for a long time, and it has a deep meaning of friendship, for example, when it represents respect, people will add the old word after the name, such as Master Ji Xianlin, our international national treasure, people call him, and they will definitely call Ji Lao to show respect.

The old word has its own connotation in so many applications.

Generally, it is to address people who are a little older, and they are more affectionate to be at the same level as themselves or a little higher but not much different.

Each person calls a hairy child, Lao Ma, Lao Li, and Lao Zhang.

It's just a convention.

A lady in our unit, a little older, is an accountant, but her attitude is very sunny and easy-going, and everyone calls her Lao Ma. If the status is very high, you will not be called Lao Ma in the company, and you will generally be called Sister Ma. As a sign of respect.

Or, when my parents talk to each other, they will say, how is Lao Li today, what did he do, Lao Wang's son went to study abroad, and then made a very beautiful girlfriend in the local area, because he has been an old friend for decades. Therefore, adding an old word does not call it by its name.

This is a lot of Chinese conventions and customs, there are really too many, the world we live in is made up of people, if you want to live well in this world, you must first study the rules around us, in fact, there are many rules, we are in the application.

I have a Chinese history of 5,000 years, culture is a long history, Chinese characters are also part of the essence of Chinese culture, since the essence, then the difficulty of learning is also quite large, many foreigners learn Chinese feel very tormented, why the same sentence has different meanings, the same word even has different meanings, which makes many Chinese language learners confused, in fact, this is a cultural difference between China and the West, but Chinese sometimes even makes Chinese themselves confused, facing the broad and profound Chinese culture, I will talk about the use of the word "old" in China.

The old word is first of all a kind of name for older people, such as old grandfather, old lady, old man, old lady, these words are all expressing the age, and the older people say that they will also use the old words, such as old man, old decay and so on. And Lao Tzu is not only used for age, but also has the meaning of being older than you or better than you in some aspects, such as teacher, boss, brother, etc., and at the same time affectionately call your neighbors, next door Lao Wang, Lao Li, Lao Huang, Lao Zhang, these intimate titles are used for acquaintances to easily make the relationship harmonious, in addition, some regional reasons often lead to the use of old words, such as the Northeast often calls male big brother, elder brother, female elder sister, this very distinctive title is also often used. And the old driver who is often said on the Internet means that this person is experienced in a certain aspect or a certain field, and it is worth learning from those who have no experience.

And the old words are sometimes often used to scold people, such as old horseman, old bald donkey, old immortal, etc., all of which are used to strengthen the tone, and with the meaning of age, scolding has become more refreshing.

In short, there are many ways to use words in Chinese, which need us to carefully figure out and speculate.

<> not to mention that seeing this question really triggered a little bit of my thinking, the Chinese Chinese language is broad and profound, as a book with the most words, the Song Dynasty official Xiu's "Collection of Rhymes" included 53,525 Chinese characters. Polyphonic words, polysemy words, and countless are countless, just take the word "old" as an example, there are 14 interpretations of this word alone in the dictionary.

Adding an old character to the front of the surname is one of the most common usages. The frequency of use of old words is super high, for example, you can call an old man surnamed Wang, or you can call a young man surnamed Wang, probably the old Wang next door. But you can only call the young man Xiao Wang, but not the old man Xiao Wang.

So the word old has a special meaning, in addition to our well-known honorific for the elderly, there is also a kind of kindness in it, which is an expression across ages. Even elementary school students and classmates may shout at will: Lao Wang and Lao Zhang.

Similar usage, there are also seniority, for example, there are several brothers and sisters in the family, and they naturally become the eldest, second, third, fourth, and so on. So, if you're not that old, usually, friends who can add an old word to your last name are basically cherished. Either you've known each other for a long time, or you've had a good relationship, or the other party doesn't treat you as an outsider at all.

This is an inadvertent outpouring of true feelings.

Finally, in order to pay tribute to my profound Chinese language, I ended with a sentence made of 10 old words: Dad said to my husband, tell your uncle, such a big boss, don't always go to the nursing home to pick cucumbers, my old friend Lao Wang told me a long time ago, that old cucumbers can't be eaten.

In terms of salutation, Chinese often add an old character to the surname of the elder, such as Zhang Lao and Li Lao, to show respect. In addition, it is used to honorifically address others, such as uncle, old man, old lady, and can be honored as an elderly man.

Seniors are the older, more qualified, and more experienced people in the honorific category; Dude is honored as a male friend; The boss respectfully refers to certain senior leaders of the Chinese People's Liberation Army (mostly used in conjunction with surnames), which is still used in ancient times.

Yes. But it is generally an honorific title for the elderly with status and status, and for ordinary people, an old ...... is added in front of the surname

The name "gong" here is an honorific title for a male elder or elderly. Usually a person of high moral character.

Yes, but it's generally familiar people who use that name.

Because there is a word called "old iron".

(It's just a joke, don't spray if you don't like it).

In other ways, old words are added. For example, old men, old ladies, husbands, wives, old calves, etc.