As a writer and a lover of language (amongst many other things), I find myself wondering frequently about things like word usage, word origins, and common vernacular versus acceptable written practice.

For example, in screenwriting, I find it acceptable to use the term “wanna” in dialogue because that’s the way that people actually speak when referring to “want to.” However, I would never spell the word “wanna” outside of dialogue passages or in very casual written conversation (e.g. emails/texts with friends). I also find myself annoyed when I read someone writing the word “wanna” to substitute for the phrase “want a” as in “I wanna sandwich.” Why? Because it serves no purpose. The reason “wanna” works as a stand-in for “want to” is because, on top of it actually sounding that way when spoken quickly, it actually functions as a written abbreviation as well (“wanna” is comprised of five letters while “want to” is comprised of six – or seven, if you include the space). Substituting “wanna” for “want a”, in my opinion, is a misappropriation of the term, and, I figure, one that serves no real purpose outside of showing that the writer doesn’t necessarily think through these things (at least relative to me; maybe I am just overly anal when it comes to grammar and language).

As a speaker of additional languages (I am semi-fluent in Mandarin Chinese), I also find myself frequently challenging the way certain words have been jacked or misinterpreted because they have their roots in another language. The most glaring example I can think of is the English use of the word “shanghai.” Not “Shanghai” as in the Chinese city but “shanghai” as in the sentence “I was shanghaied by those motherfuckers.”

Now, the online dictionary tells us that this word’s meaning is “’to drug a man unconscious and ship him as a sailor,’ from the practice of kidnapping to fill the crews of ships making extended voyages, such as the Chinese seaport of Shanghai.”

Really?

Because when I hear it used, it’s frequently closer in meaning to something like “waylaid” or “ambush” or “jacked” (slang). The Chinese words for Shanghai (上海) have nothing to do with that meaning whatsoever. They literally mean “up” and “ocean” and are not used outside of reference to the city of Shanghai.

Here’s what I think: I think that someone really stretched to make that English dictionary definition fit the word when, in reality, what is is is just a case of slight “lost in translation.” Why do I think that? Because guess what – there is another phrase in Chinese that sounds somewhat similar to “shanghai” (and would probably sound more-or-less the same to someone who didn’t speak Chinese) but is actually closer in sound to “sien hai” (陷害 or xian4 hai4 for all you pinyin readers).

And guess what that phrase means? “To harm another with a trumped-up charge, slander, etc.”

Coincidence? You be the judge.