甘井先ず竭く

Japanese

Kanji in this term
甘 井 先 竭
かん
Grade: S 		せい
Grade: 4 		ま
Grade: 1 		つ
Hyōgai

Etymology

Calque of Literary Chinese 甘井先竭 (gānjǐngxiānjié), from 莊子/山木. Literally "a sweet well is the first to be exhausted", because the sweet well has many users.[1]

Proverb

甘(かん)井(せい)先(ま)ず竭(つ)く • (kansei mazu tsuku) 

  1. highly-skilled men are the first to be exhausted

References

  1. ^ Matsumura, Akira, editor (1995), 大辞泉 [Daijisen] (in Japanese), First edition, Tokyo: Shogakukan, →ISBN
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