炒蝦拆蟹

Chinese

		saute; pan-fry; to fry saute; pan-fry; to fry; fried	shrimp; prawn	to tear open; to tear down; to tear apart to tear open; to tear down; to tear apart; to open	crab
trad. (炒蝦拆蟹)		炒	蝦	拆	蟹
simp. (炒虾拆蟹)		炒	虾	拆	蟹
Literally: “to fry shrimps and crack crabs”.

Etymology

Crabs and shrimps are two of the symbols used in censorship of swear words.

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): caau² haa¹ caak³ haai⁵

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• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: caau² haa¹ caak³ haai⁵
    • Yale: cháau hā chaak háaih
    • Cantonese Pinyin: tsaau² haa¹ tsaak⁸ haai⁵
    • Guangdong Romanization: cao² ha¹ cag³ hai⁵
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡sʰaːu̯³⁵ haː⁵⁵ t͡sʰaːk̚³ haːi̯¹³/

Idiom

炒蝦拆蟹

1. (Cantonese, colloquial, euphemistic) to use offensive or vulgar words; to swear; to talk dirty

Synonyms

• 爆粗 (baau3 cou1)
• 媽媽聲／妈妈声 (maa1 maa1 seng1)