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Horse horse tiger tiger: slang and idioms


wix

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Ah...that does make sense. The person didn't write it for me, and you know how accents in these rural southern areas are. N's turn to L's, r's get dropped, ah's turn to ai's, tones stop being used, and an old lady telling me how to say "menstruation" obviously makes her j's sound like b's.

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Some number ones:

er4 bai2 wu5 (250, but you definitely have to say "er" instead of "liang") - which means crazy, or not normal. It comes from the belief that the number 500 counts as the whole. 250 is half of that, thus not normal.

san ba (3, 8) This one comes from cantonese I think and it means whore... Maybe it's not used very often though...

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the full phrase is chou3 san1 ba1. It literally means stinking three-eight (or ugly three-eight, apparently) and it means "b*tch" - March 8 (three-eight) is International Women's Day.

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  • 2 weeks later...

It's not from the Cantonese. See my reply above. San means three and ba means eight. Three-eight. March 8. International Women's Day. The full phrase is chou san ba - stinking three-eight.

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Well, that's not all that different from the Mandarin - funny that, being related languages and all. There's the whole "san ba" thing, and another word for "bitch" happens to be "za za po" or...there's another one that ends in "po" but I remember "za za po" so that's what I'd use, if I ever had a reason to say "bitch" ("You're gonna send my package to the USA, BI-ATCH!" would not have gotten my package sent, and that's the last time I've even desired to call someone that).

I think we should discuss words for men now - what's the best way to say "man whore", or "playa" if you will? I learned "se mi mi de" (lecherous), ji nan (literally "man whore"), "se lang" (colored wolf, a man who'll go with ANY girl, specifically skanks), and a word I can't remember - I'd have to look it up - that quite conveniently means both "dirty old man" and "bestiophile".

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Well, my students told me that one, and they often try to tone things down, thinking I'll be offended or something. What they don't know is that I can outswear anyone in my native language, should I choose to do so. I rarely do...but oh...I can.

So it may mean that here, too.

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se lang definately refers to older men who go after younger women - or at least that's what i've heard from my friends.

here's a good all purpose cantonese word - I don't know if this expression exists in Mandarin - "haam sup" - directly translated as "salty wet" It means everything from "perverted" to "horny" to "X-rated" to "always thinking about sex" - which are 4 slightly different english concepts, but haam sup encompases all of them.

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I think we should discuss words for men now - what's the best way to say "man whore", or "playa" if you will? I learned "se mi mi de" (lecherous), .

Is that different from "se se mi mi" which I learned to be "horny"? I was asking one of my teachers about this word and she said it's more something a girl would say if she was horny. My teacher might not have been up to date on current uses of the word, though. Any clarifications?

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I'm not sure...they could be the same, or related. Probably are. Xiaosun (a friend) told me it was for men - specifically old men who stare at young girls or try to give them "hugs". I don't know the characters (watch it be ones I already know, like "colored rice", that'd be funny) so I can't check my dictionary...

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The characters are -

se se mi mi - 色色迷迷

se mi mi de - 色迷迷的

These terms are usually used to describe men -

semimi de nanren/zaolaotouzi - 色迷迷的男人/糟老頭子

semimi de yanshen - 色迷迷的眼神

semimi de selang - 色迷迷的色狼 (ha ha ha)

The cantonese term someone mentioned is 鹹濕, very cantonese indeed.

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Also -

manwhore - 男妓 (literally)

playboy - 花花公子 (I think this is exactly the name of the megazine)

I always find the term "hua hua gong zi" very interesting in China (mainland). THe people I've met for the most part don't realize it's a pornographic magazine. I think it's probably originally from HK where they knew it was a porno. Most people just see Playboy as a clothes label.

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Also -

manwhore - ?? (literally)

playboy - ???? (I think this is exactly the name of the megazine)

I always find the term "hua hua gong zi" very interesting in China (mainland). THe people I've met for the most part don't realize it's a pornographic magazine. I think it's probably originally from HK where they knew it was a porno. Most people just see Playboy as a clothes label.

"Huahua Gongzi" is the title for the Playboy magazine in Taiwan and has been for many many years. Why does everyone assume a term is from Hong Kong or Cantonese when it's seldom used in the mainland? Mandarin (and Chinese in general) is used in many other regions as well.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 4 months later...
Here's a very easy to remember and easy to use idiom.

人山人海 ren shan ren hai or people mountain' date=' people sea

It basically means a place that is very crowded and overflowing with people.[/quote']

another one is "给他个 colour see".

another one about the ku4 being cool. also shuai4 being cool? but when i went back to china 2yrs ago, my little 10yo cousin taught me something. you'd say "wa, hao3 ku4 a" and he'd say "shenma ku? chen4 ku4 de ku4" chen4ku4 being underwear? or trousers you wear on the inside of your trousers? and also "wa, hao shuai a!" "sen ma shuai? xi1 shuai4 de shuai4!" xi shuai being beetle?

which i thought was quite funny...

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