muckefuck: (Default)
muckefuck ([personal profile] muckefuck) wrote2005-11-21 04:32 pm
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Odd Cantonese idioms: Cooking

It was a pleasant weekend of not doing much. Saturday, I had some time to browse my books for more odd Chinese idioms, but so far I haven't really found any to top these two colloquial Cantonese examples:
燉佢冬菇 (lit. "stew his mushrooms") "demote him"
炒佢魷魚 (lit. "stir-fry his squid") "fire him"

[identity profile] sfopanda.livejournal.com 2005-11-22 04:13 am (UTC)(link)
These are also used in Mandarin. They are sometimes abbreviated to just the verb!

I often use colloquialisms like 滾! (lit. "roll!") for "Get out!", or I'd insult something by adding 雞鴨 (lit. "chicken duck") to it, which I think translates to "goddamn" or something like that...

[identity profile] sfopanda.livejournal.com 2005-11-22 03:54 pm (UTC)(link)
The more innocent context would be using a farm animal metaphor to connote total lack of sophistication.

I do think, however, 雞鴨 as a euphemism for 雞巴 is very possible, or at the very least a very entertaining side effect. You might go even further to say that 雞鴨 as a euphemism references both "penis" (雞) and "vagina" (鴨), which would provide a nice harmony of opposites, which the Chinese like.