What does "Xiong nu "mean?

You didnt answer my question. I asked what is the meaning of the words "Xiong Nu"? Does it have a meaning in Chinese? Is this a name given to this group of people with purpose, identifying them?

china="zhongguo"= the central kingdom or the middle kingdom

"xiongnu" = "xiong"+slave     xiongyali=hungary (That is partly why common chinese people think there must be relationship between hun and xiongnu)

ancient japan=wedoo="wonu"="wo"+slave(from about 200-300 AD)

"xianbei"=xian +lower race

(negative meaning of nation names)

The rulers of ancient chinese dynasties are very proud of the culture of and prosperity and military force of china, they always use bad names for those nations who disobey the orders of tributing system or show some kind of independence and ignorance of chinese power.

chosun=chaoxian=moist (200-100 B.C)(first recorded in <shiji>

korea=gaoli=tall and beautiful

american="meilijian"=pretty+profit+tough

english="yinjili"="yin"+good luck

french="falanxi"="fa"+good smell flower  

italy='yi da li"="yi"+very high profit 

(Those good meaning in chinese of country names are obliged to by military force in the 19 century)

i would say it's kinda both.

when these names were translated into chinese, the chinese tried to give them some positive meanings while fitting the sound of these names in english.

the japanese however did otherwise.

since "rice" and "beautiful" sound similar (min or mei) in chinese and i suppose it's similar in japanese as well, the short form of the usa is called "beautiful" country in china but it's called "rice" country in japan. both "beautiful and rice" can be used but the chinese picked "beautiful" to give it a more possitive name.

this is ridiculously wrong. the first character of bush's name can mean "fabric". the second character can mean "special".  when they are put together, they don't have any meaning and are not structurally meaningful. i am not sure but i believe in china and taiwan, they use different chinese characters for bush's name from the ones used in hong kong because mandarin sounds kind of different from cantonese. but as far as i know, it does not have any meaning either.

for bush, it's just the sound that matters.

for xiongnu, wa japanese, they do have some meanings when the characters are put together. japan was called "wei nu" which can be translated as "short / poor slave". please note that "nu" definitely doesn't sound anything close to japan. "nu" (slave) was used to name both the xiongnu and the japanese.

there are some names that have meanings. such as the name of the usa, which literally means "beautiful country". the chinese name of "usa" sounds a little different in cantonese from it does in mandarin. the sound is not always the reason why the name is made this way. in some cases, it does, while in some others, it does not. a lot of times, they consider both the sound factor and the meaning.

for the case of xiongnu, it sounds nothing from what the xiongnu people call themselves and does have a meaning of "slave" and inferior. please read the article above or what i quoted for you below.

i dunno where u got that "wet diaper" idea from but may i repeat it once more: ur not in a very good position to justify what the chinese know about their language when you don't know it yourself. and you are not gonna look so good.

you obviously haven't read the above quote made by another member and here you go:

"However, in spite of Pulleyblank��s arguments, it must be admitted that the name Xiongnu carries strongly derogatory connotations, and was unlikely to have been used by the people themselves.
          The first character �� xiong nowadays means ��thorax�� or ��chest,�� the seat of intelligence and emotions; but originally it had the meaning of ��evil hidden within the man�� �C see GR No. 4593. The second character, ū nu means simply ��slave�� or ��serf��. I believe the answer lies in the fact that they did not refer to themselves as Xiongnu but, rather, used other terms ore or less closely related in sound but without the derogatory overtones. The clues may be found, I believe, in the following passage from Yu (2000), p. 180 which apparently lists transcriptions of some of the names the Xiongnu tribes may have used for themselves"

It's already posted here that Xiongnu means "Ferocious Slaves" in Modern/Mandarin Chinese. However, the character �� Xiong was pronounced as "Hong" in Ancient Chinese so the name was Hongnu (Hung-nu in Wade-Giles transcription), which must have been a Chinese transcription/corruption of the name Hun/Khun/Qun.