📖 Meaning
A metaphor for being excessively talkative and verbose. It vividly depicts a person whose speech is so tangled and overabundant that it becomes counterproductive, like one mouth trying to wield three tongues at once.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom originates from the Han dynasty scholar Jiao Yanshou's divination text 'Yi Lin' (Forest of Changes). The original passage reads '一口三舌，相妨无益,' meaning one mouth with three tongues only causes mutual interference without any benefit. Jiao Yanshou was a Western Han scholar who studied the I Ching and compiled 'Yi Lin' as a manual for divination. The striking image of a single mouth sprouting three tongues conveys how excessive, unproductive speech hinders rather than helps communication.
💡 Example Usage
他这人一口三舌，说半天也没讲到重点。
He's so long-winded that after talking for ages he still hasn't gotten to the point.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 一口三舌
- Pinyin: yī kǒu sān shé
- Literal Translation: one, mouth, three, tongue
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4