The number 250 in Chinese，when used to describe people, is an insult. The Chinese characters are 二百五. It means a blockhead, simpleton, idiot. A nincompoop. If you have worked hard to turn things against yourself, you are certainly a 250.
When the U.S. was celebrating its 220th birthday, several of us were talking about what 250 meant in Chinese. A guy joked: "when it's time for the U.S. to celebrate its 250th birthday, the Chinese will laugh and laugh, and we will all feel confused not knowing why ..."
So beware of "250" when people talk to you.
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- Longroad
- Ph.D. in linguistics. Research scientist and consultant in language and development, as well as natural language understanding and processing.
2 comments:
Could you explain why 250 means stupid in Chinese?
For instance, I heard that certain numbers are homonyms for other words.
There are different theories regarding this. One that I think makes the most sense is that, in ancient China, 500 ounces of silver were called one FENG (a measure word), which was homonymous with the word feng1 "crazy". And half of 500, 250, was half "feng1", homonymous for ban4-feng1 ('half crazy'). ban4-feng1 in Chinese is used to describe somebody who is not mentally healthy.
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