Taxi

10 Responses to Taxi

1. Tim Ferguson says:

   23 June 2009 at 9:13 am

   I would love to see Fr. Z in the “Cash Cab”
2. J K says:

   23 June 2009 at 10:14 am

   Not in Chinese–they call them “chu zu che”, “car for hire” more or less. I think most Chinese cabbies would be mystified if you asked about their “taxi”.
3. Anthony says:

   23 June 2009 at 11:32 am

   “believe” is incorrectly spelled in your posting.
4. benj says:

   23 June 2009 at 12:08 pm

   random post. I thought the birds were random enough.
5. Fr. John Zuhlsdorf says:

   23 June 2009 at 1:54 pm

   Yah… forget about the Chinese. However… is “da di che” to “get a cab” where “da di” is a rendering of “taxi”?
6. J K says:

   23 June 2009 at 7:02 pm

   “Da di” is what I learned, where “da” means “hit” literally (that all-purpose Chinese verb used for making a phone call among many other uses) and “di” the same character as the possesive particle “de”. Just why that particular idiom means to hail a cab (in Beijing dialect probably) I don’t know, but I learned the phrase in school. Native speakers can help us round-eyes out!
7. Mark Scott Abeln says:

   23 June 2009 at 9:32 pm

   From “taximeter cabriolet”.
8. Charivari Rob says:

   24 June 2009 at 8:00 am

   Hey, Father Z. -

   Do they still have the recorded celebrity voices in the NYC taxis, reminding you to take all your packages with you and ask your driver for a receipt? If so, which celebrity did you get? Did they customize it for you, make the announcements in Latin?
9. Mark R says:

   24 June 2009 at 1:07 pm

   Its provenance is the German principality Taxis.
10. Nan says:

    24 June 2009 at 1:39 pm

    It’s short for taximeter cabriolet. Taximeter is the device calculating distance and cost, cabriolet is a type of carriage pulled by two horses on which the meter was originally used.

    The German Principality of Thurn und Taxis was known for their postal service, building castles and beer.