貪字貧字殼

Chinese

		greedy	letter; symbol; character letter; symbol; character; word	poor	letter; symbol; character letter; symbol; character; word	shell
trad. (貪字貧字殼)		貪	字	貧	字	殼
simp. (贪字贫字壳)		贪	字	贫	字	壳
Literally: “the character 'greed' is shelled in the character 'poverty'”.

Etymology

From the graphical similarity between 貪 (“to be greedy; greed”) and 貧 (“to be poor; poverty”).

Pronunciation

• Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): tham--jī pîn--jī khak / tham--lī pîn--lī khak

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• Southern Min
  • (Hokkien: Zhangzhou, Kaohsiung)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: tham--jī pîn--jī khak
    • Tâi-lô: tham--jī pîn--jī khak
  • (Hokkien: Xiamen, Quanzhou, Taipei)
    • Pe̍h-ōe-jī: tham--lī pîn--lī khak
    • Tâi-lô: tham--lī pîn--lī khak

Proverb

貪字貧字殼

1. (Southern Min) Do not be greedy or you will suffer losses

Synonyms

• (Cantonese) 貪字得個貧 / 贪字得个贫 (taam¹ zi⁶ dak¹ go³ pan⁴)