布玛 (Bùmǎ): Bulma (the inventor heroine fro…

Meanings

1 Bulma (the inventor heroine from the Dragon Ball / 七龙珠 manga and anime by Akira Toriyama)

Characters

布

bù

cloth (used phonetically for 'Bu-')

玛

mǎ

agate (used phonetically for '-ma')

Examples

布玛是孙悟空最早认识的朋友之一。

Bùmǎ shì Sūn Wùkōng zuì zǎo rènshi de péngyou zhī yī.

Bulma is one of the earliest friends Son Goku met.

布玛是西部首都胶囊公司的天才工程师。

Bùmǎ shì Xībù Shǒudū Jiāonáng Gōngsī de tiāncái gōngchéngshī.

Bulma is the genius engineer of the West City Capsule Corporation.

Tips

culture

Standard mainland Chinese rendering of Bulma (ブルマ), the genius-inventor heroine of 鸟山明 (Toriyama Akira)'s 《七龙珠》 (Dragon Ball). Bulma's Japanese name is itself a pun on 'bloomers' (the gym shorts) — Toriyama named most Dragon Ball characters after underwear or food. In Taiwan/Hong Kong she is often called 庄子 or 布玛 depending on translation; 布玛 is the most widely used in mainland fan circles.

usage

Phonetic transliteration: 布 ('cloth') for 'Bu-' (also in 布丁 'pudding'), 玛 ('agate') for '-ma' (also in 玛丽 'Mary'). Neither character carries semantic weight here.