yuanyang means A pair of mandarin ducks, one male and one female, as a symbol of faithful union. Lexicurio rates it Sui generis — a strength score of 95 out of 100.
Why “yuanyang” is a great word
YUANYANG — [Noun] A mandarin duck, or a mated pair of them, symbolizing conjugal fidelity in Chinese culture, or a beverage that blends tea and coffee. Borrowed from Mandarin 鴛鴦 / 鸳鸯 (yuānyāng), literally meaning 'male (鴛) and female (鴦) mandarin duck'. Unlike "yuenyeung" (which denotes specifically the Hong Kong-style drink) or "lovebirds" (which refers to small parrots as both a biological and romantic metaphor), yuanyang is a singular emblem of paired completeness. It is the iridescent drake and his soft-plumaged mate gliding on a still pond; it is the dark, bitter coffee and the astringent tea steeped into one paradoxical cup; it is the twin carvings, forever intertwined, on a wedding chest—a testament that the most profound unions are not an erasure of difference, but an alchemy of it.
Etymology
Borrowed from Mandarin 鴛鴦 /鸳鸯 (yuānyāng, literally “male (鴛) and female (鴦) mandarin duck”).
noun
- A pair of mandarin ducks, one male and one female, as a symbol of faithful union.“The yuanyang are the male and female respectively of Anas galericulata, commonly called by Europeans "Mandarin duck." These beautiful water-fowl manifest when mated a singular degree of attachment for each other, and they have hence been elevated into the emblems of connubial affection and fidelity.”
- Synonym of yuenyeung.“Yuanyang, sometimes also called Ying Yong, is a popular beverage in Hong Kong, made of a mixture of coffee and Hong-style milk tea.”
name
- A county of Honghe, Yunnan, China.“The same report also said that between six and seven thousand Moslems in Yuanyang County, Yunnan Province, staged an armed uprising last July.”
- A county of Xinxiang, Henan, China.