adieu

Thanks tod-daniels, Interesting post, and helpful to understand the translation and its history. Showed สี่ลม to a new Thai friend and asked if it could mean "four winds" if I wanted to use it as a name for a boat. He said I could, but perhaps in a way that suggested I could do anything I wanted translation-wise without fear of going to jail.

Thanks for the help. The low tone si ~ สี่ is four. The rising tone si ~ สี is colour. Si Lom as in the street name actually translates as "colour windy" or something like that, but means windmill. Correct? After watching the video, that makes perfect sense. Am I right that I could put together the words สี่ and ลม to express the term "four winds"? For example, if I wanted to name a longboat Four Winds with the translation (สี่ลม), would it work without sounding completely ridiculous to a Thai ear? Your patience is much appreciated.

Bit confused about the translation of si lom, which I understand translates to "windmill". But I have been told that si lom (สีลม) also translates to "four winds". If I google "four winds in thai language" it returns si tit (สี่ทิศ) which I believe means "four directions". That makes sense I guess, given how "four winds" tends to be used in English. Am I right to assume that si lom means both windmill and four winds, depending on the context? Thanks, Jim