Literally: “little goose feet” / meaning: quotation marks
You won’t believe how complex the topic of quotation marks is until you do what I am doing right now: write a text in a language other than your own.
There is a surprisingly large variety of shapes in which they are used in different languages. Not even the UK and the US agree on how to apply them correctly. So it’s a subtle difference in punctuation if you demand to ‘legalise it’ or to “legalize it.” The French, on the other hand, have their beloved Guillemets («…») that look like inverted Citroën logos. In fact, they also look way more like actual goose feet than the German „Gänsefüßchen,“ which rather resemble sperms swimming in sync.
Be it as it is, the word is an almost too adorable expression for the profane character it represents. I tried hard to find a halfway creative synonym for quotation marks in any language before I gave up and shouted, “screw that!” Or「去他的!」, as a Taiwanese would quote in their odd Tetris block shaped goose feet equivalents.
