📖 Meaning
To feel jealous, especially in romantic relationships. It describes someone who becomes envious or possessive when a rival appears in a love triangle. The metaphor evokes the sour taste of vinegar to represent the bitterness of jealousy.
📜 Origin Story
The expression draws on the traditional Chinese association between vinegar and jealousy. Folklore holds that during the Tang Dynasty, Emperor Taizong offered a few concubines to his minister Fang Xuanling, but Fang's wife fiercely refused them. When the emperor offered her a cup of vinegar disguised as poison to test her resolve, she drank it without hesitation, giving rise to the cultural link between vinegar and conjugal jealousy. Over time, the phrases 'drinking vinegar' and 'eating vinegar' became idioms for romantic jealousy, and '拈酸吃醋' combined these notions into a vivid four-character expression.
💡 Example Usage
看到男友和别的女孩说说笑笑，她心里忍不住拈酸吃醋起来。
Seeing her boyfriend chatting and laughing with another girl, she couldn't help feeling a pang of jealousy.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 拈酸吃醋
- Pinyin: niān suān chī cù
- Literal Translation: pinch, sour, eat, vinegar
- Category: Emotion
- Characters: 4