<p>in 唐 dynasty (618-907), there're records of 千秋:</p>

<p>the peom 樓前 by 王建</p>

<pre><code>天寶年前勤政樓
每年三日作千秋
飛龍老馬曾教舞
聞著音聲總舉頭
</code></pre>

<p>another one is the <a href="https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/%E6%BC%A2%E6%AD%A6%E5%B8%9D%E5%BE%8C%E5%BA%AD%E7%A7%8B%E5%8D%83%E8%B3%A6%EF%BC%88%E4%B8%A6%E5%BA%8F%EF%BC%89" rel="nofollow noreferrer">漢武帝後庭鞦韆賦</a> by 高無際, which stated:</p>

<pre><code>況鞦韆者﹒千秋也﹒
漢武祈千秋之壽﹒
故後宮多鞦韆之樂
</code></pre>

<p>later, in 記纂淵海　卷八十九, by 潘自牧 (~1195) of 宋 dynasty (p33-34 of pdf file);</p>

<p><a href="https://archive.org/details/06065623.cn" rel="nofollow noreferrer">https://archive.org/details/06065623.cn</a></p>

<p>that the term "鞦韆" was elaborated. mr 潘 claimed that, according to mr 高:</p>

<pre><code>鞦韆﹒漢武帝後庭之戲﹒
本云千秋﹒祝壽之詞也﹒
語訛轉為秋千﹒後人乃旁加革
</code></pre>

<p><a href="https://i.sstatic.net/VQsBa.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/VQsBa.png" alt="enter image description here"></a>
<a href="https://i.sstatic.net/9ZqXr.png" rel="nofollow noreferrer"><img src="https://i.sstatic.net/9ZqXr.png" alt="enter image description here"></a></p>

<p>briefly, it's 千秋  --> 秋千 --> 鞦韆</p>

<p>back to the original question, the game "swing" in cantonese is "千秋", which share the meaning "thousand autumn", a term for wishing for longevity.</p>

<p>lastly, i would say that it's one of the numerous evidences, that cantonese is highly correlated with middle chinese. or, one might say that cantonese preserve more / change less than other "dialects".</p>

<p>have fun :)</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-26T09:47:51.980Z
1) There are far more reference of 鞦韆 than 韆鞦 in classical text. 王建's poem looks more like a special case where the poet was just trying to rhyme. 2) `況鞦韆者千秋也` could easily interpreted as "鞦韆 sounds like 千秋 (a benediction)" instead of "鞦韆 is in fact 千秋", especially taking context into account. 潘's interpretation of 高 looks odd.
Wang Dingwei
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-26T10:20:44.777Z
great, you notice it. i'm in doubt that mr 高 was not scientific enough, that his saying was not trustable. then, mr 潘 misquote mr 高's text; which make more puzzlements. the rationale i accept their writings is, even these're errors, they're thousand years old. about 2, though your interpretation is acceptable, however, the grammar of [A者, B也] is well established, that most of the time, it says A is B. have fun :)
水巷孑蠻
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-26T08:48:19.230Z
2016-09-26T08:48:19.230Z
水巷孑蠻
<p>Hong Kong Cantonese call playground swing "韆鞦". (we consider 鞦韆 / 秋千 a Mandarin term )</p>

<blockquote>
  <p><a href="http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/36669/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/36669/</a></p>
  
  <p><strong>鞦韆</strong> </p>
  
  <p><em>cau1 cin1</em>   (jyutping)</p>
  
  <p><em>qiu1 qian1</em>  (pinyin)</p>
  
  <p><strong>swing; trapeze</strong></p>
  
  <p>[粵] <strong>韆鞦</strong></p>
</blockquote>

<p>In Hong Kong, 韆鞦 is often written as 千秋 by people who either didn't know the correct characters or just want to use characters that have less stokes. </p>

<p>We can tell from the context of a sentence that we are talking about "swing" or  "thousand autumns".</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>more reference</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A7%8B%E5%8D%83" rel="nofollow">https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A7%8B%E5%8D%83</a></p>
</blockquote>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-26T05:57:42.513Z
The wiki link indicates that cantonese calls the action of swinging on a swing 打韆鞦. This is interesting because in taiwan, we call it 盪鞦韆.
辛祐賦 hsinyofu
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-26T05:19:17.817Z
2016-09-26T05:39:12.810Z
2016-09-26T05:39:12.810Z
Tang Ho
<p>In the process of simplifying Chinese characters, there are rare words that simplified wholely, so each character cannot be considered as the simplified version of the corresponding origin character in this case. For example, the word 衚衕 is simplified to 胡同, 鞦韆 is simplified to 秋千, that means in this case, the characters 胡 is not the simplified characters of 衚, the characters 同 is not the simplified characters of 衕, the characters 鞦 is not the simplified characters of 秋, and the characters 韆 is not the simplified characters of 千. 千秋 may mean <strong>thousand autumns</strong> literally, it is always the same form from ancient times to now. But if the word 千秋 is another name of a <strong>swing</strong> (秋千/鞦韆) in some dialect, it should written as 韆鞦 in traditional Chinese.</p>

CC BY-SA 4.0
2018-12-06T11:11:48.920Z
2018-12-06T11:11:48.920Z
xenophōn
<p>In mandarin, it's 秋千 (ie the two characters reversed), and 千秋 doesn't mean swing.</p>

<p>It actually has some connection with thousand years. Every swing cycle represents a year of life and you do it many times as a wish for longevity of the child.</p>

CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-28T10:45:00.220Z
Would the negative voters comment? Even if 千秋 is used to mean swing in the old times, it certainly isn't in mandarin now.
jf328
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-09-26T08:17:49.630Z
2016-09-26T08:17:49.630Z
jf328
<p>Breaking down each word it means thousand autumns.</p>

<p>Why does this mean a playground swing?</p>

<p>Is this a local cantonese word or is it used in mandarin too?</p>

<cantonese><word>
Why does 千秋 mean a swing?
# Why does 千秋 mean a swing?

(Asked by: username_0 on 2016-09-26)

Breaking down each word it means thousand autumns.

Why does this mean a playground swing?

Is this a local cantonese word or is it used in mandarin too?

**Tags:** cantonese, word


---

## 4 answers

### Answer by username_1 on 2016-09-26. Score: 3

in 唐 dynasty (618-907), there're records of 千秋:

the peom 樓前 by 王建

```
天寶年前勤政樓
每年三日作千秋
飛龍老馬曾教舞
聞著音聲總舉頭

```

another one is the [漢武帝後庭鞦韆賦](https://zh.wikisource.org/zh-hant/%E6%BC%A2%E6%AD%A6%E5%B8%9D%E5%BE%8C%E5%BA%AD%E7%A7%8B%E5%8D%83%E8%B3%A6%EF%BC%88%E4%B8%A6%E5%BA%8F%EF%BC%89) by 高無際, which stated:

```
況鞦韆者﹒千秋也﹒
漢武祈千秋之壽﹒
故後宮多鞦韆之樂

```

later, in 記纂淵海　卷八十九, by 潘自牧 (~1195) of 宋 dynasty (p33-34 of pdf file);

<https://archive.org/details/06065623.cn>

that the term "鞦韆" was elaborated. mr 潘 claimed that, according to mr 高:

```
鞦韆﹒漢武帝後庭之戲﹒
本云千秋﹒祝壽之詞也﹒
語訛轉為秋千﹒後人乃旁加革

```

[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/VQsBa.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/VQsBa.png)
[![enter image description here](https://i.sstatic.net/9ZqXr.png)](https://i.sstatic.net/9ZqXr.png)

briefly, it's 千秋 --> 秋千 --> 鞦韆

back to the original question, the game "swing" in cantonese is "千秋", which share the meaning "thousand autumn", a term for wishing for longevity.

lastly, i would say that it's one of the numerous evidences, that cantonese is highly correlated with middle chinese. or, one might say that cantonese preserve more / change less than other "dialects".

have fun :)

> **Comments:**
> **username_2**: 1) There are far more reference of 鞦韆 than 韆鞦 in classical text. 王建's poem looks more like a special case where the poet was just trying to rhyme. 2) `況鞦韆者千秋也` could easily interpreted as "鞦韆 sounds like 千秋 (a benediction)" instead of "鞦韆 is in fact 千秋", especially taking context into account. 潘's interpretation of 高 looks odd.  
> **username_1**: great, you notice it. i'm in doubt that mr 高 was not scientific enough, that his saying was not trustable. then, mr 潘 misquote mr 高's text; which make more puzzlements. the rationale i accept their writings is, even these're errors, they're thousand years old. about 2, though your interpretation is acceptable, however, the grammar of [A者, B也] is well established, that most of the time, it says A is B. have fun :)  

---

### Answer by username_3 on 2016-09-26. Score: 2

Hong Kong Cantonese call playground swing "韆鞦". (we consider 鞦韆 / 秋千 a Mandarin term )

> <http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/36669/>
>
> **鞦韆**
>
> *cau1 cin1* (jyutping)
>
> *qiu1 qian1* (pinyin)
>
> **swing; trapeze**
>
> [粵] **韆鞦**

In Hong Kong, 韆鞦 is often written as 千秋 by people who either didn't know the correct characters or just want to use characters that have less stokes.

We can tell from the context of a sentence that we are talking about "swing" or "thousand autumns".

> more reference
>
> <https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E7%A7%8B%E5%8D%83>

> **Comments:**
> **username_4**: The wiki link indicates that cantonese calls the action of swinging on a swing 打韆鞦. This is interesting because in taiwan, we call it 盪鞦韆.  

---

### Answer by username_5 on 2018-12-06. Score: 0

In the process of simplifying Chinese characters, there are rare words that simplified wholely, so each character cannot be considered as the simplified version of the corresponding origin character in this case. For example, the word 衚衕 is simplified to 胡同, 鞦韆 is simplified to 秋千, that means in this case, the characters 胡 is not the simplified characters of 衚, the characters 同 is not the simplified characters of 衕, the characters 鞦 is not the simplified characters of 秋, and the characters 韆 is not the simplified characters of 千. 千秋 may mean **thousand autumns** literally, it is always the same form from ancient times to now. But if the word 千秋 is another name of a **swing** (秋千/鞦韆) in some dialect, it should written as 韆鞦 in traditional Chinese.


---

### Answer by username_6 on 2016-09-26. Score: -2

In mandarin, it's 秋千 (ie the two characters reversed), and 千秋 doesn't mean swing.

It actually has some connection with thousand years. Every swing cycle represents a year of life and you do it many times as a wish for longevity of the child.

> **Comments:**
> **username_6**: Would the negative voters comment? Even if 千秋 is used to mean swing in the old times, it certainly isn't in mandarin now.  

---

