📖 Meaning
To praise someone profusely and everywhere one goes. It describes enthusiastically recommending or boasting about another person's virtues without reservation. The idiom conveys wholehearted, unrestrained admiration expressed openly to others.
📜 Origin Story
The idiom originates from the Tang dynasty, when the senior official and poet Yang Jingzhi (杨敬之) deeply admired the talented poet Xiang Si (项斯). Yang wrote Xiang Si a famous poem containing the lines '平生不解藏人善，到处逢人说项斯' — 'Throughout my life I have never known how to hide another's goodness; wherever I go I tell people about Xiang Si.' Because Yang praised Xiang Si so lavishly and persistently, later generations derived 极口项斯 to describe speaking of someone with the utmost praise at every opportunity.
💡 Example Usage
他对这位青年才俊极口项斯，四处推荐。
He praised the young talent to the skies, recommending him everywhere he went.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 极口项斯
- Pinyin: jí kǒu xiàng sī
- Literal Translation: extremely, mouth, Xiang Si
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4