霉霉

Chinese

		bacteria; fungi; mouldy	bacteria; fungi; mouldy
trad. (霉霉)		霉	霉
simp. #(霉霉)		霉	霉

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• Jin (Wiktionary): mei¹ mei^1-3

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• Jin
  • (Taiyuan)⁺
    • Wiktionary: mei¹ mei^1-3
    • Sinological IPA (old-style): /mei¹¹ mei¹¹⁻⁴⁵/

Noun

霉霉

1. (Jin) mold; mildew; must

Synonyms

• 黴／霉 (méi)

Etymology 2

Blend of 美女 (měinǚ) +‎ 倒霉 (dǎoméi).

At early stages since her debut, Taylor was nicknamed 小美女 (xiǎo měinǚ, literally “little beauty”) by Chinese fans. However, at that time she often ranked the second in Billboard Hot 100 despite her popularity. Some fans then modified her nickname into 小霉女 (literally “little unlucky girl”).

Note that 美 (měi) and 霉 (méi) are pronounced the same in both nicknames because of tone sandhi.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): Méiméi

  (Zhuyin): ㄇㄟˊ ㄇㄟˊ

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: Méiméi
    • Zhuyin: ㄇㄟˊ ㄇㄟˊ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: Méiméi
    • Wade–Giles: Mei²-mei²
    • Yale: Méi-méi
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: Meimei
    • Palladius: Мэймэй (Mɛjmɛj)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /meɪ̯³⁵ meɪ̯³⁵/

Proper noun

霉霉

1. (Mainland China, informal) Taylor Swift