Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
For example, 言不由衷 'speak not from the bosom' and 'to speak with one's tongue in one's cheek' share idiomatic meanings. The Chinese not having conducted maritime explorations of the North Atlantic during imperial times, the expression 冰山一角 'one corner of an ice mountain' is a rare example of a chengyu that emerged in the early ...
Many Chinese proverbs (yànyǔ 諺語) [1] exist, some of which have entered English in forms that are of varying degrees of faithfulness. A notable example is "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step", from the Dao De Jing, ascribed to Laozi. [2]
Kill the chicken to scare the monkey (traditional Chinese: 殺雞儆猴; simplified Chinese: 杀鸡儆猴; pinyin: Shājījǐnghóu; Wade–Giles: Sha-chi-ching-hou, lit. kill chicken scare monkey) is an old Chinese idiom. It refers to making an example out of someone in order to threaten others. [1]
(Paper tiger is a literal English translation of the Chinese phrase zhǐ lǎohǔ (Chinese: 紙老虎), meaning something which seems as threatening as a tiger, but is really harmless. The phrase is an ancient one in Chinese, but sources differ as to when it entered the English vocabulary.
Heaven is high and the emperor is far away is a Chinese proverb thought to have originated from Zhejiang during the Yuan dynasty. [1] Both historically and in contemporary China, the proverb has a variety of uses, for example: (1) in reference to local government autonomy, (2) in reference to corruption of local officials or lawlessness, or (3) in reference to minor offenses committed outside ...
Xiehouyu are examples of anapodota, a class of rhetorical device found across different languages. Compare English an apple a day (keeps the doctor away) and speak of the devil (and he shall appear). The Chinese word xiehouyu may be literally translated as 'truncated witticism'. Puns are often involved in xiehouyu. In this case, the second part ...
A tertiary meaning is "something that seems tangible and simple but has a deeper ephemeral quality." This name references 鏡中的花，水裡的月 , which is the shorter form of a Chinese idiom (or chéngyǔ ), literally meaning a " flower seen in the mirror, moon on the water's surface ".
Lin's Chinese-English Dictionary of Modern Usage comprises approximately 8,100 character head entries and 110,000 word and phrase entries. [10] It includes both modern Chinese neologisms such as xǐnǎo 洗腦 "brainwash" and many Chinese loanwords from English such as yáogǔn 搖滾 "rock 'n' roll" and xīpí 嬉皮 "hippie".