炒芥蘭

Chinese

		saute; pan-fry; to fry saute; pan-fry; to fry; fried	kailan; Chinese broccoli; Chinese kale
trad. (炒芥蘭)		炒	芥蘭
simp. (炒芥兰)		炒	芥兰

Etymology

There are two theories for the soccer slang:

• From figurative sense, due to resemblance of the vegetable to human thighs.
• Phono-semantic matching of English charley horse. However, "charley horse" actually means "muscle cramp in legs" and does not correspond exactly to the sense in Cantonese.

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): caau² gaai³ laan^4-2

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• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: caau² gaai³ laan^4-2
    • Yale: cháau gaai láan
    • Cantonese Pinyin: tsaau² gaai³ laan^4-2
    • Guangdong Romanization: cao² gai³ lan^4-2
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰaːu̯³⁵ kaːi̯³³ laːn²¹⁻³⁵/

Verb

炒⫽芥蘭 (verb-object)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see 炒 (caau²),‎ 芥蘭 / 芥兰 (gaai³ laan^4-2).
2. (Cantonese, soccer) to have one's thigh kicked and hurt