this post was submitted on 23 Jan 2025
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I wonder how that occurred.
Abstract = 摘要 (summary) or 抽象 (Abstract concepts etc.)
In 抽象，抽 = Pumping (suck), 象 = Elephant
I further wonder how that occurred.
抽 - can also mean "pulled" , as well as "suck" or "pump" .
象 - in 抽象 is "appearance, form, shape" , rather than elephant. (Don't know why they're the same character, I usually blame imperial name taboo because: why not?)
So 抽象, as abstract is the art sense rather than summary one. But since they're the same in English, taken across to be the same in Chinese (I guess, I don't know if papers in Chinese start with a 抽象), so "pulled-distorted form/appearance".
Kinda late by now, but I think this was because someone first machine-translated Abstract to Chinese, which typically means 抽象 (thus being the pick for the machine-translator program). This was then machine-translated (badly) again to English, causing the pumping elephant nonsense.
Yes, machine translation is 100% why this occurred.
And here I thought kanji compounds made no sense because they were adapted from Chinese with little regard to their meaning but apparently hanzi are just as wild.