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小聪明 (xiǎo cōng ming) — (pejorative) petty cleverness; trickiness; playing smart in trivial matters

Definition

A pejorative noun for 'petty cleverness' — being clever in trivial ways instead of working hard, which loses people's trust.

noun
(pejorative) petty clevernesstrickinessplaying smart in trivial matters

Examples

  • 小聪明，。
    Tā zǒng shì shuǎ xiǎo cōng ming, jié guǒ méi rén xiāng xìn tā.
    He always plays petty tricks, and as a result no one trusts him.
  • 小聪明，。
    Zuò xué wèn bù néng kào xiǎo cōng ming, yí dìng yào xià kǔ gōng fu.
    To do scholarship you can't rely on petty cleverness; you must put in hard work.
  • 小聪明，。
    Tā yòng xiǎo cōng ming yìng fu miàn shì, zuì hòu hái shì méi yǒu dé dào nà fèn gōng zuò.
    He used petty cleverness to get through the interview, but in the end he didn't get the job.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
偏正piānzhèngModifier + head

The first part narrows down the second: it says what kind of thing the head is.

小xiǎosmall
聪明clever
聪cōngclever明míngbright
联合Coordinate

小 means petty or trivial, and 聪明 is cleverness, so the word describes cleverness in small matters.

Characters in this word

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

  • 八八bāto divide; to separate
  • 丨丨gǔnsmall object

The shape of 小 comes from three small dots, later elongated into its strokes; the apparent parts 八 and 丨 are a later way of seeing it.

Open 小 →

Most characters — around four in five — are built this way: one part hints at the meaning, the other at the pronunciation.

This origin belongs to the traditional form 聰; 聪 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
心心xīnheart
Sound part声符shēngfú
囪
囪cōng聰cōng
Same sound today

The traditional form 聰 has 耳, the ear, beside a right side made of 囪, a window giving the sound, over 心, the heart; the simplified 聪 is a later abbreviation.

Open 聪 →

Two or more meaningful parts placed together so that their meanings combine into a new one.

明 combines 日 (sun) and 月 (moon), showing the sun just rising while the moon has not yet set, or two bright objects in the sky, to express brightness.

Open 明 →
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