joss佛像；神像；偶像

【使用地区】：英国

【释义】：

Joss is pidgin for a Chinese house idol or cult image，while a joss house is

a Chinese temple，and a joss stick is an incense stick burned before an ido1．It seems that early Portuguese explorers were told that these idols were household gods．The Portuguese thus gave them the Portuguese name for God，Deos．This sounded like joss to the Chinese，and they adopted the word．

该词为混合语，指中国的家神或偶像。joss house指中国的庙宇，joss stick是神像前所烧的香。似乎早期的葡萄牙殖民者被告知，这些神像是家神。葡萄牙人就用Deos称之，在葡萄牙语中意为“上帝”。在中国人听来，这有点像joss，因此就采用了该词。