📖 Meaning
To speak lightly and carelessly without restraint or thought. It describes someone who is glib, loose-tongued, or prone to making flip remarks. Often used to criticize a person who speaks without considering the consequences of their words.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom appears in various vernacular Chinese literary works as a traditional descriptive phrase rather than tracing to a single definitive source. The component characters '轻' (light, frivolous) and '薄' (thin, lacking depth) both carry the sense of treating something with insufficient seriousness or weight. Similar expressions such as '轻嘴薄舌' appear in Ming and Qing dynasty vernacular novels, where they were commonly used to describe servants, gossips, or characters prone to loose talk.
💡 Example Usage
他这人轻口薄舌，什么秘密都藏不住。
He is so loose-tongued that no secret can stay hidden with him.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 轻口薄舌
- Pinyin: qīng kǒu báo shé
- Literal Translation: light, mouth, thin, tongue
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4