📖 Meaning
To be excessively concerned with trivial or insignificant matters, nitpicking over every minor detail. It describes a petty, narrow-minded attitude where one quibbles over inconsequential gains or losses rather than seeing the bigger picture.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom is a variant of the more common 斤斤计较 (jīn jīn jì jiào). It first appeared in an essay by Liang Qichao (梁启超), a prominent Chinese scholar and reformer of the late Qing Dynasty. In his commentary on Sino-Japanese negotiations, Liang wrote that given the close brotherly ties between the two nations, there was no need to haggle over trivialities. The character 龈 (gums) is used here as a phonetic loan for 斤, which originally meant 'axe' or a unit of weight and came to connote meticulous scrutiny.
💡 Example Usage
朋友之间不必龈龈计较这些小钱。
Between friends, there's no need to haggle over such small amounts of money.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 龈龈计较
- Pinyin: yín yín jì jiào
- Literal Translation: gums, gums, calculate, haggle
- Category: Attitude
- Characters: 4