Yes, brothers and sisters, how about a weeble?

http://www.inthe80s.com/toys/images/goofweeble.jpg

Weeble

Egg shaped characters that would wobble back and forth and not falldown. Came with a house that opened up in which you could put them indifferent rooms. Also came with a tree house and a tree swing and a car.Theme was- "Weebles wobble, but they don’t fall down

The thing is, in Russian, and in Hebrew it has a much better-sounding name, all incorporating a boy’s name:

Russian- "Van’ka-vstan’ka", that is, Little-John-who-keeps-standing-up.
Hebrew- "Nahum-takum", same here.
And they all rhyme, mind you.

In the east the doll suddenly ages a lot:

in Chinese, ‘bu dao weng’, something like "grandpa-don’t-fall".
Japanese- Oki’agari-koboshi"- ‘little monk who keeps standing up’.

So why in English there’s a only a commercial name?

norio
http://i7.ebayimg.com/01/i/02/36/66/f2_1.JPG

[quote author=KatyBr link=board=wordsuggest;num=1091681692;start=0#1 date=08/05/04 at 20:38:30]ok we’ve had yeggs, fat ladies someone Moe waxes lyrical about, jam not shakin’ like de jelly,  now weebles?  Norio where have you been hanging out.  Or maybe that’s the wrong qurestion?
Katy

Well, obviously, my word suggestions are totally random (like everybody else’s, I guess).

For me, though, as a non-native speaker, it usually revolves around words that are new to me, or words that I want to know.

By the way, what "fat ladies"?

norio

Here are some Japanese "oki-agari-koboshi":
http://www.combibaby.com/goods/toy/voice/img/okiagarikobosi.jpg
http://www.combibaby.com/goods/toy/voice/img/okiagarikobosi/okiagarikobosi_024.jpg

norio

Traditionally Japanese "okiagari-koboshi" are symbol of persistency or keeping on "going back to the mattress" a la Godfather.  They do fall down but are sure to come back.  http://www.city.aizuwakamatsu.fukushima.jp/j/kanko/city/minngei/img/yamada1.jpg

A kind of "okiagari-koboshi" styled with a 7th century Buddhist monk (Bodhidharma) is called "daruma," http://www.mizuho-g.com/image/dm_hebikawa02.jpg and sold as good-luck talisman.  Candidates for public office are known to buy a lot of them before the election as we see them in Japanese TV.  The fate of darumas after the election night (especially those that belonged to the lost ones) is recently classified as state secret due to the increased possibility of administration change.

Flam,

[quote author=Flaminius link=board=wordsuggest;num=1091681692;start=0#4 date=08/07/04 at 09:32:32]
 Candidates for public office are known to buy a lot of them before the election as we see them in Japanese TV.  The fate of darumas after the election night (especially those that belonged to the lost ones) is recently classified as state secret due to the increased possibility of administration change.

Flam,

Not only politicians, alos students facing tough exams buy those little Daruma (by the way, Daruma is Bodhidarma), make a wish, piant one eye on its face, and, if their wish is fulfilled, paint the other eye.

I guess you might find many one-eyed, "crest fallen" darumas, lying in the dirt, their power falling short of what was expected from them…

norio