📖 Meaning
To mention or identify someone explicitly by their full name, leaving no doubt about who is being referred to. It implies speaking directly and openly about a person rather than using vague hints or general references. Often carries a tone of confrontation, accusation, or straightforward accountability.
📜 Origin Story
This idiom is recorded in the modern Chinese novel The Three-Family Lane (三家巷) by Ouyang Shan (欧阳山), a 20th-century Chinese writer known for realist fiction. The novel, set in Guangzhou during the revolutionary period of the 1920s, depicts the intersecting lives of three families amid social upheaval. In the quoted line, a character complains that no one has named anyone directly, yet the other party keeps dragging in irrelevant matters to argue about. The phrase thus entered common usage as a standard expression for calling someone out by name without ambiguity.
💡 Example Usage
会上领导指名道姓地批评了迟到的员工。
At the meeting, the leader criticized the late employees by name.
🏷️ Category
➕ Similar Idioms
➖ Opposite Idioms
🔤 Quick Facts
- Chinese: 指名道姓
- Pinyin: zhǐ míng dào xìng
- Literal Translation: point out name, state surname
- Category: Communication
- Characters: 4