小心翼翼

Chinese

to be careful of something; to mind; to beware of cautious; prudent; orderly
trad. (小心翼翼) 小心 翼翼
simp. #(小心翼翼) 小心 翼翼

Etymology

Occurred a few times in the Classic of Poetry, for example, poem 236 (《詩經·大雅·大明》):

維此文王，小心翼翼。
昭事上帝，聿懷多福。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]
维此文王，小心翼翼。
昭事上帝，聿怀多福。 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11th – 7th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version
Wéi cǐ Wénwáng, xiǎoxīn yìyì.
Zhāo shì Shàngdì, yù huái duō fú. [Pinyin]
This king Wen, Watchfully and reverently,
With entire intelligence served God, And so secured the great blessing.

Pronunciation

Idiom

小心翼翼

  1. cautious; prudent; wary; with great care; cautiously

Synonyms

This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.