老牛食幼筍
Chinese
old; aged; venerable old; aged; venerable; outdated; experienced; (affectionate prefix) |
ox; cow; bull | eat; food; to feed eat; food; to feed; animal feed |
young | bamboo shoot | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| trad. (老牛食幼筍) | 老 | 牛 | 食 | 幼 | 筍 | |
| simp. (老牛食幼笋) | 老 | 牛 | 食 | 幼 | 笋 | |
| Literally: “old cow eating young bamboo shoots”. | ||||||
Pronunciation
- Puxian Min (Pouseng Ping'ing): lao5 gu2 sia7 iu4 song3 / lao5 gu2 sia7 iu4 suong3
- Puxian Min
- (Putian)
- Pouseng Ping'ing: lao5 gu2 sia7 iu4 song3 [Phonetic: lao5 gu2 sia5 iu1 song3]
- Báⁿ-uā-ci̍: lāu-gú sia̍h iu̍-seông
- Sinological IPA (key): /lau¹¹ ku¹³ ɬia¹³⁻¹¹ iu⁴²⁻⁵⁵ ɬɔŋ⁴⁵³/
- (Xianyou)
- Pouseng Ping'ing: lao5 gu2 sia7 iu4 suong3 [Phonetic: lao5 gu2 sia5 iu1 suong3]
- Sinological IPA (key): /lau²¹ ku²⁴ ɬia²⁴⁻²¹ iu⁴²⁻⁵⁵ ɬuoŋ³³²/
- (Putian)
Idiom
老牛食幼筍
- (Puxian Min) May-December relationship; to rob the cradle; a romance where one partner is significantly older than the other
Synonyms
Dialectal synonyms of 老牛吃嫩草 (“to rob the cradle”) [map]
| Variety | Location | Words |
|---|---|---|
| Formal (Written Standard Chinese) | 老牛吃嫩草 | |
| Northeastern Mandarin | Taiwan | 老牛吃嫩草 |
| Harbin | 老來啃青 | |
| Cantonese | Hong Kong | 老牛食嫩草 |
| Hakka | Miaoli (N. Sixian) | 老牛食嫩草 |
| Pingtung (Neipu; S. Sixian) | 老牛食嫩草 | |
| Hsinchu County (Zhudong; Hailu) | 老牛食嫩草 | |
| Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu) | 老牛食嫩草 | |
| Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping) | 老牛食嫩草 | |
| Yunlin (Lunbei; Zhao'an) | 老牛食嫩草 | |
| Puxian Min | Putian | 老牛食幼筍 |
| Xianyou | 老牛食幼筍 | |
References
- 李如龙 [Li, Ru-long], 刘福铸 [Liu, Fu-zhu], 吴华英 [Wu, Hua-ying], 黄国城 [Huang, Guo-cheng] (2019) 莆仙方言调查报告 [Investigation Report on Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), Xiamen University Press, →ISBN, page 84.