See also: 田鸡

Chinese edit

field; farm fowl; chicken
trad. (田雞/田鷄) /
simp. (田鸡)
Literally: “field chicken”.
 
田雞。

Etymology edit

Frogs are called “chicken of the field” due to the similarity in taste, per Compendium of Materia Medica first attested in the 1578 CE:

南人田雞 [Literary Chinese, trad.]
南人田鸡 [Literary Chinese, simp.]
From: The Compendium of Materia Medica [Bencao Gangmu], by Li Shizhen, 1578 CE
Nánrén shí zhī, hū wéi tiánjī, yún ròuwèi rú jī yě. [Pinyin]
The Southerners had them as food, found their meat to be similar to chicken, and therefore called them “field chicken”.

Compare Vietnamese gà đồng (literally field chicken).

Pronunciation edit


Noun edit

田雞

  1. frog (amphibian); more specifically the Chinese edible frog (Hoplobatrachus chinensis, syn. Hoplobatrachus rugulosus) (Classifier: )
  2. (figurative, colloquial, humorous or derogatory) Short for 四眼田雞四眼田鸡 (sìyǎn tiánjī, “bespectacled person, four-eyes”).

Synonyms edit

Derived terms edit