呃鬼食豆腐

Chinese

		hiccough	ghost; sly; crafty	eat; food; to feed eat; food; to feed; animal feed	tofu; bean curd; any food with tofu-like physical quality
trad. (呃鬼食豆腐)		呃	鬼	食	豆腐
simp. #(呃鬼食豆腐)		呃	鬼	食	豆腐
Literally: “to trick ghosts to eat tofu”.

Etymology

豆腐 (dau⁶ fu⁶) is possibly altered from 道符 (dou⁶ fu⁴, “talisman papers”).

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): ngaak¹ gwai² sik⁶ dau⁶ fu⁶

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• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: ngaak¹ gwai² sik⁶ dau⁶ fu⁶
    • Yale: ngāak gwái sihk dauh fuh
    • Cantonese Pinyin: ngaak⁷ gwai² sik⁹ dau⁶ fu⁶
    • Guangdong Romanization: ngag¹ guei² xig⁶ deo⁶ fu⁶
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /ŋaːk̚⁵ kʷɐi̯³⁵ sɪk̚² tɐu̯²² fuː²²/

Idiom

呃鬼食豆腐

1. (Cantonese) to lure someone into a trap, to trick someone
2. (Cantonese) pull the other one, it's got bells on (used to show disbelief in something)

   呢條友攞咗人哋嘅嘢又唔還，而家佢又話冇攞喎，呃鬼食豆腐咩！ [Cantonese, trad.]
   呢条友𫽋咗人哋嘅嘢又唔还，而家佢又话冇𫽋㖞，呃鬼食豆腐咩！ [Cantonese, simp.]

   ne¹ tiu⁴ jau⁵ lo² zo² jan⁴ dei⁶ ge³ je⁵ jau⁶ m⁴ waan⁴, ji⁴ gaa¹ keoi⁵ jau⁶ waa⁶ mou⁵ lo² wo⁴, aak¹ gwai² sik⁶ dau⁶ fu⁶ me¹! [Jyutping]

   That guy never returns anything he borrows, but now he's saying that he never took that. Pull the other one!