無大無細

Chinese

		not have	big; great; huge big; great; huge; large; major; wide; deep; oldest; eldest; doctor	not have	fine; minutely; thin fine; minutely; thin; slender
trad. (無大無細)		無	大	無	細
simp. (无大无细)		无	大	无	细

Pronunciation

Hakka
(Sixian, PFS): mò-thai-mò-se

(Hailu, HRS): mo tai^˖ mo se^ˇ
Eastern Min (BUC): mò̤-duâi-mò̤-*sá̤
Puxian Min (Pouseng Ping'ing): bo² dua⁵ bo² se⁴
Southern Min
(Hokkien, POJ): bô-tōa-bô-sòe / bô-tōa-bô-sè

(Teochew, Peng'im): bho⁵ dua⁷ bho⁵ soi³

Hakka
- (Sixian, incl. Miaoli and Neipu)
  - Pha̍k-fa-sṳ: mò-thai-mò-se
  - Hakka Romanization System: mo^ˇ tai mo^ˇ se
  - Hagfa Pinyim: mo² tai⁴ mo² se⁴
  - Sinological IPA: /mo¹¹ tʰai̯⁵⁵ mo¹¹ se⁵⁵/
- (Hailu, incl. Zhudong)
  - Hakka Romanization System: mo tai^˖ mo se^ˇ
  - Sinological IPA: /mo⁵⁵ tʰai³³ mo⁵⁵ se¹¹/
Eastern Min
- (Fuzhou)
  - Bàng-uâ-cê: mò̤-duâi-mò̤-*sá̤
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /mo⁵³⁻²¹ ^(t-)luai²⁴²⁽⁻²¹⁾ mo⁵³⁻²¹ sɑ²¹³/
Puxian Min
- (Putian)
  - Pouseng Ping'ing: bo² dua⁵ bo² se⁴ [Phonetic: bo⁴ dua⁵ bo¹ se⁴]
  - Báⁿ-uā-ci̍: beó-duā-beó-sa̤̍
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /po¹³⁻⁴² tua²¹ po¹³⁻⁵⁵ ɬe⁴²/
- (Xianyou)
  - Pouseng Ping'ing: bo² dua⁵ bo² se⁴ [Phonetic: bo⁴ dua⁵ bo¹ se⁴]
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pɵ¹³⁻⁴² tua²¹ pɵ¹³⁻⁵⁵ ɬe⁴²/
- (Xianyou)
  - Pouseng Ping'ing: bo² dua⁵ bo² se⁴ [Phonetic: bo⁵ lua⁵ bo¹ le⁴]
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /pɵ¹³⁻²¹ ^(t-)lua²¹ pɵ¹³⁻⁵⁵ ^(ɬ-)le⁴²/

Note: Xianyou's phonetic "bo⁵ lua⁵ bo¹ le⁴" is used in sense 1.

Southern Min
- (Hokkien: Xiamen, Quanzhou, Taipei, Jinjiang, Philippines, Singapore)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: bô-tōa-bô-sòe
  - Tâi-lô: bô-tuā-bô-suè
  - Phofsit Daibuun: boi'doaxboisoex
  - IPA (Singapore): /bo²⁴⁻²¹ tua²²⁻²¹ bo²⁴⁻²¹ sue²¹/
  - IPA (Taipei): /bo²⁴⁻¹¹ tua³³⁻¹¹ bo²⁴⁻¹¹ sue¹¹/
  - IPA (Xiamen): /bo²⁴⁻²² tua²²⁻²¹ bo²⁴⁻²² sue²¹/
  - IPA (Quanzhou, Jinjiang, Philippines): /bo²⁴⁻²² tua⁴¹⁻²² bo²⁴⁻²² sue⁴¹/
- (Hokkien: Zhangzhou, Kaohsiung, Tainan)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: bô-tōa-bô-sè
  - Tâi-lô: bô-tuā-bô-sè
  - Phofsit Daibuun: boi'doaxboisex
  - IPA (Kaohsiung): /bɤ²³⁻³³ tua³³⁻²¹ bɤ²³⁻³³ se²¹/
  - IPA (Zhangzhou): /bo¹³⁻²² tua²²⁻²¹ bo¹³⁻²² se²¹/
  - IPA (Tainan): /bɤ²⁴⁻³³ tua³³⁻¹¹ bɤ²⁴⁻³³ se²¹/
- (Teochew)
  - Peng'im: bho⁵ dua⁷ bho⁵ soi³
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī-like: bô tuā bô sòi
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /bo⁵⁵⁻¹¹ tua¹¹ bo⁵⁵⁻¹¹ soi²¹³/

Idiom

無大無細

(Hakka, Eastern Min, Southern Min, Puxian Min) to have no sense of who is senior and who is junior; to show no respect to elders
(Puxian Min) neither too big nor too small; just the right size

Synonyms

Dialectal synonyms of 沒大沒小 (“to have no sense of who is senior and who is junior; to show no respect to elders”) [map]

Variety	Location	Words edit
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		沒大沒小
Northeastern Mandarin	Taiwan	沒大沒小
	Harbin	沒大沒小, 沒老沒少
	Singapore	沒大沒小
Jiaoliao Mandarin	Yantai (Muping)	沒大沒小
Central Plains Mandarin	Xi'an	沒大沒小
Lanyin Mandarin	Yinchuan	沒大小, 沒大沒小
Jianghuai Mandarin	Nanjing	十裡八搭
Jianghuai Mandarin	Yangzhou	不上不下, 沒大沒小
Cantonese	Guangzhou	冇大冇細
	Hong Kong	冇大冇細
	Taishan	冇大冇細
	Dongguan	冇大冇細
	Singapore (Guangfu)	冇大冇細
Gan	Nanchang	冒大冒細
Hakka	Meixian	無上無下
	Huizhou (Huicheng; Bendihua)	冇大冇細
	Miaoli (N. Sixian)	無大無細, 無老無大, 無上無下
	Pingtung (Neipu; S. Sixian)	無大無細, 無老無大, 無上無下
	Hsinchu County (Zhudong; Hailu)	無大無細, 無老無大, 無上無下
	Taichung (Dongshi; Dabu)	無大無細, 無老無大, 無上無下
	Hsinchu County (Qionglin; Raoping)	無大無細, 無老無大, 無上無下
	Yunlin (Lunbei; Zhao'an)	無大無細, 無上無下
Jin	Taiyuan	沒大沒小
Northern Min	Jian'ou	無大無小
Eastern Min	Fuzhou	無大無細
Southern Min	Xiamen	無大無細
	Quanzhou	無大無細
	Zhangzhou	無大無細
	Tainan	無大無細
	Singapore (Hokkien)	無大無細
	Manila (Hokkien)	無大無細
	Jieyang	無大無細
Puxian Min	Putian	無大無細
Puxian Min	Xianyou	無大無細
Wu	Shanghai	嘸大嘸小
	Shanghai (Chongming)	嘸大嘸小
	Suzhou	嘸大小, 嘸大嘸小
Xiang	Changsha	冇上冇下, 冇大冇細, 冇得大細
Xiang	Loudi	冇大冇小

References

小川尚義 (OGAWA Naoyoshi), editor (1931–1932), “無大無小”, in 臺日大辭典 [Taiwanese-Japanese Dictionary]‎^[1] (overall work in Hokkien and Japanese), Taihoku: Government-General of Taiwan, →OCLC
“無大無細”, in 教育部臺灣台語常用詞辭典 [Dictionary of Frequently-Used Taiwanese Taigi] (overall work in Mandarin and Hokkien), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2025.
“Entry #370”, in 臺灣客語辭典 [Dictionary of Taiwan Hakka] (overall work in Chinese and Hakka), Ministry of Education, R.O.C., 2022.
莆田市政协文化文史和学习委员会 [Culture, History and Learning Committee of Putian CPPCC], editor (2021), “无大无细”, in 莆仙方言大词典 [Comprehensive Dictionary of Puxian Dialect] (overall work in Mandarin and Puxian Min), Xiamen University Press, →ISBN, page 43.