燉冬菇

Chinese

		stew	a type of shiitake mushroom; Chinese black mushroom
trad. (燉冬菇/炖冬菇)		燉/炖	冬菇
simp. (炖冬菇)		炖	冬菇
alternative forms		燉冬菰／炖冬菰
Literally: “to stew shiitake mushrooms”.

Etymology

From slang used by Hong Kong police. In the early days, when plainclothes police officers were demoted, they had to wear the uniform, which included a mushroom-shaped hat. 燉／炖 (dan⁶, “to stew”) is a pun on 褪 (tan³, “to go backwards”).

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): dan⁶ dung¹ gu¹

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• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: dan⁶ dung¹ gu¹
    • Yale: dahn dūng gū
    • Cantonese Pinyin: dan⁶ dung¹ gu¹
    • Guangdong Romanization: den⁶ dung¹ gu¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /tɐn²² tʊŋ⁵⁵ kuː⁵⁵/

Verb

燉⫽冬菇 (verb-object)

1. (Cantonese, idiomatic) to demote

Synonyms

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• 左遷 / 左迁 (zuǒqiān) (literary)
• 甪職 / 甪职 (Hokkien)
• 落格 (Xiamen Hokkien, Zhangzhou Hokkien)
• 貶官 / 贬官 (biǎnguān) (an official)
• 貶斥 / 贬斥 (biǎnchì) (literary)
• 貶職 / 贬职 (biǎnzhí) (literary)
• 貶黜 / 贬黜 (biǎnchù) (literary)
• 降級 / 降级 (jiàngjí)
• 降職 / 降职 (jiàngzhí)