食穀種

Chinese

		eat; food; to feed eat; food; to feed; animal feed	rice seeds
trad. (食穀種)		食	穀種
simp. (食谷种)		食	谷种

Etymology

Rice seeds are reserved by farmers so that they can grow them and make money in the future. When there is crop failure and one has consumed all food storage, he has no choice but to eat the seeds. Thus this expression means one has lived off all savings without income.

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): sik⁶ guk¹ zung²

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• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: sik⁶ guk¹ zung²
    • Yale: sihk gūk júng
    • Cantonese Pinyin: sik⁹ guk⁷ dzung²
    • Guangdong Romanization: xig⁶ gug¹ zung²
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /sɪk̚² kʊk̚⁵ t͡sʊŋ³⁵/

Verb

食⫽穀種 (verb-object)

1. (Cantonese) to live off one's savings without any income