# 'Washier' meaning shallow for Chinese **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [April 16, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washier-meaning-shallow-for-chinese/618956 "2012-04-16T15:38:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 3:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washier-meaning-shallow-for-chinese/618956/1 "2012-04-16T15:38:18Z")
I had an email that I had to try to parse from a Chinese colleague. He described a groove in a part as being ‘too washy’. Later he described it as ‘washier’ I wasn’t sure what he meant or how he came to use the word washy or washier. At first I thought he meant the groove was too rough, not smooth enough…and he got to the term ‘washy’ because of its relationship to ‘washboard’ roads. But no. He was using the term to mean ‘too shallow’ not deep enough. Would any of you hazard a guess as to how he made the connection of ‘too shallow’ to be called ‘too washy’? Maybe GQ, maybe IMHO…don’t know ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 3:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washier-meaning-shallow-for-chinese/618956/2 "2012-04-16T15:41:27Z")
Really WAG: color that is too pale or faded can be called “washed out,” so maybe that was generalized to describing a shallow groove? He might have seized on the “washed” portion of the phrase. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washier-meaning-shallow-for-chinese/618956/3 "2012-04-16T15:58:13Z")
A “wash” (as a noun) can be a shallow stream or tidal area, or a shallow depression or channel formed in rock or earth by water flowing or washing over it. So it may be that he literally meant “wash-like”, or in other words, “shallow, like a wash, rather than deep, like a river or canyon”. ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_I\_Am](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e495f1/32.png) [@Sam\_I\_Am](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_I_Am)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washier-meaning-shallow-for-chinese/618956/4 "2012-04-16T16:47:17Z")
To me, washy means not bold enough. I could see someone applying that to the depth of a groove, though it is a bit of a stretch. ---
**Author:** ![zut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zut/32/2875_2.png) [@zut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zut)\ **Post date:** [April 16, 2012, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washier-meaning-shallow-for-chinese/618956/5 "2012-04-16T17:44:52Z")
[“Washy”](http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/washy?s=t) can also mean “thin” in the sense of excessively diluted (thin coffee, for example). So if your colleague had heard or seen the word used in that sense and then assumed that “washy” and “thin” were _always_ synonyms, then that could be the origin of the connection. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [April 17, 2012, 3:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/washier-meaning-shallow-for-chinese/618956/6 "2012-04-17T15:31:41Z")
> [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > A “wash” (as a noun) can be a shallow stream or tidal area, or a shallow depression or channel formed in rock or earth by water flowing or washing over it. This. Many Chinese speakers rely on handheld electronic translation devices before they are fluent, frequently leading to “thesaurus confusion”. I remember one young lady who told me she was glad to talk to me because she was a strange girl. The next day she explained that because of my reaction she double-checked - she meant “curious” but her device automatically suggested all synonyms, even though “strange” had no connection to her input query. She selected it because it was easier to pronounce.