貪字貧字殼

Chinese

		greedy	letter; symbol; character letter; symbol; character; word	poor	letter; symbol; character letter; symbol; character; word	shell
trad. (貪字貧字殼)		貪	字	貧	字	殼
simp. (贪字贫字壳)		贪	字	贫	字	壳
Literally: “the character 'greed' is shelled in the character 'poverty'”.

Etymology

From the graphical similarity between 貪 (“to be greedy; greed”) and 貧 (“to be poor; poverty”).

Pronunciation

Southern Min (Hokkien, POJ): tham--jī pîn--jī khak / tham--lī pîn--lī khak

Southern Min
- (Hokkien: Zhangzhou, Kaohsiung)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: tham--jī pîn--jī khak
  - Tâi-lô: tham--jī pîn--jī khak
- (Hokkien: Xiamen, Quanzhou, Taipei)
  - Pe̍h-ōe-jī: tham--lī pîn--lī khak
  - Tâi-lô: tham--lī pîn--lī khak

Proverb

貪字貧字殼

(Southern Min) Do not be greedy or you will suffer losses

Synonyms

(Cantonese) 貪字得個貧 / 贪字得个贫 (taam¹ zi⁶ dak¹ go³ pan⁴)