掛羊頭賣狗肉
See also: 挂羊头卖狗肉
Chinese edit
to hang; to put up; to suspend | goat's head | sell | dog meat | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
trad. (掛羊頭賣狗肉) | 掛 | 羊頭 | 賣 | 狗肉 | |
simp. (挂羊头卖狗肉) | 挂 | 羊头 | 卖 | 狗肉 | |
Literally: “to sell dog meat while hanging a goat's head outside the shop as an advertisement”. |
Etymology edit
Appeared in some Song dynasty books like 五燈會元 and 續傳燈錄, originally as 懸羊頭賣狗肉/悬羊头卖狗肉 (xuán yángtóu mài gǒuròu), for example:
Which in turn was a variant of 懸牛首賣馬肉/悬牛首卖马肉 in Yanzi chunqiu:
- 君使服之於內,而禁之於外,猶懸牛首於門,而賣馬肉於內也。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
- From: Annals of Master Yan, c. 3rd century BCE
- Jūn shǐ fú zhī yú nèi, ér jìn zhī yú wài, yóu xuán niú shǒu yú mén, ér mài mǎròu yú nèi yě. [Pinyin]
- (please add an English translation of this usage example)
君使服之于内,而禁之于外,犹悬牛首于门,而卖马肉于内也。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
Pronunciation edit
Idiom edit
掛羊頭賣狗肉
- (figurative) to cry wine and sell vinegar; to do a bait and switch; to use a good cause as a cover for doing something bad
Synonyms edit
Descendants edit
- → Vietnamese: treo đầu dê bán thịt chó (calque)
- → Japanese: 羊頭を掲げて狗肉を売る (calque)