📖 Meaning
Speaking in a cutting and sarcastic manner while treating others coldly and unkindly. It describes someone whose words are biting and whose attitude is mean-spirited and ungenerous toward others.
📜 Origin Story
The phrase originates from the Song dynasty work 'Xin Xiang Bian' (心相编, Compendium on Reading the Heart) by the Daoist sage Chen Tuan. The text observes that a foolish and coarse person tends to speak in a sharp, sour, and harsh manner. The work was a physiognomy treatise that linked inner character with outward behavior, and this idiom endured as a vivid description of a mean, ill-natured way of speaking.
💡 Example Usage
她说话尖酸刻薄，得罪了不少同事。
She speaks so sharply and meanly that she has offended many colleagues.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 尖酸刻薄
- Pinyin: jiān suān kè bó
- Literal Translation: sharp, sour, harsh, thin
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4