虎子

Chinese

		tiger	child; son; (noun suffix) child; son; (noun suffix); small thing; seed; egg; 1st earthly branch; 11 p.m.–1 a.m., midnight
trad. (虎子)		虎	子
simp. #(虎子)		虎	子

Ceramic chamber pot (虎子 (hǔzǐ)), Western Jin era (c. 3rd century).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): hǔzǐ

  (Zhuyin): ㄏㄨˇ ㄗˇ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): fu² zi²

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: hǔzǐ [Phonetic: húzǐ]
    • Zhuyin: ㄏㄨˇ ㄗˇ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: hǔzǐh
    • Wade–Giles: hu³-tzŭ³
    • Yale: hǔ-dž
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: huutzyy
    • Palladius: хуцзы (xuczy)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /xu²¹⁴⁻³⁵ t͡sz̩²¹⁴⁻²¹⁽⁴⁾/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: fu² zi²
    • Yale: fú jí
    • Cantonese Pinyin: fu² dzi²
    • Guangdong Romanization: fu² ji²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /fuː³⁵ t͡siː³⁵/

Noun

虎子

1. (literary, literally) tiger's cub

   不入虎穴，焉得虎子？ [Classical Chinese, trad. and simp.]

   Bù rù hǔxué, yān dé hǔzǐ? [Pinyin]

   If you don't enter the tiger's den, how will you get the tiger's cub?

2. (archaic) nightstool; closestool; commode; toilet; chamber pot (with shape similar to tiger)

Usage notes

During the Han Dynasty, the emperor's commode was called 虎子 (hǔzǐ). However, the grandfather of Emperor Gaozu of Tang was called 李虎 (Lǐ Hǔ). Because it was forbidden for common items to contain the given names of members of the imperial family (see Naming taboo), 虎子 was changed to 馬子／马子 (mǎzi), which morphed later into 馬桶／马桶 (mǎtǒng).

Synonyms

• (tiger's cub): 小老虎 (xiǎolǎohǔ); (Hokkien) 虎仔