Aim higher, reach further. Word on the Street: Ben Zimmer  Take
Note, Grasshopper, Of Kung Fu  When Hong Kong media magnate Run
Run Shaw died earlier this week at age 106, his obituaries
credited the Shaw studio with popularizing the "kung fu" film
genre, sparking a Western fascination with Chinese martial arts
beginning in the late 1960s.  Such Shaw productions as the 1972
classic "Five Fingers of Death" were indeed instrumental in
making the craze for kung fu an international phenomenon. But
the term "kung fu" had already been percolating in martial-arts
circles for more than a decade, especially among Chinese
transplants in the U.S.  The Chinese term "gongfu" has a
centuries-long history meaning "workmanship" or "skill gained
through committed effort." "Kung fu" is a different rendering of
the same word, using a transcription system developed by British
Sinologists in the 19th century. The term first shows up in
English-language accounts of China to refer to Taoist bodily
exercises that were intended to co