虎子

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Chinese

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tiger
child; son; (noun suffix)
child; son; (noun suffix); small thing; seed; egg; 1st earthly branch; 11 p.m.–1 a.m., midnight
 
trad. (虎子)
simp. #(虎子)
Wikipedia has articles on:
Ceramic chamber pot (虎子 (hǔzǐ)), Western Jin era (c. 3rd century).

Pronunciation

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Noun

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虎子

  1. (literary, literally) tiger's cub
    虎穴虎子 [Classical Chinese, trad. and simp.]
    Bù rù hǔxué, yān dé hǔzǐ? [Pinyin]
    If you don't enter the tiger's den, how will you get the tiger's cub?
  2. (archaic) nightstool; closestool; commode; toilet; chamber pot (with shape similar to tiger)

Usage notes

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During the Han Dynasty, the emperor's commode was called 虎子 (hǔzǐ). However, the grandfather of Emperor Gaozu of Tang was called 李虎 (Lǐ Hǔ). Because it was forbidden for common items to contain the given names of members of the imperial family (see Naming taboo), 虎子 was changed to 馬子马子 (mǎzi), which morphed later into 馬桶马桶 (mǎtǒng).

Synonyms

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