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老掉牙 (lǎo diào yá) — very old, obsolete, outdated, clichéd

Definition

A vivid, informal way to say something is extremely out-of-date or clichéd — usually about ideas, jokes, technology, or styles, not people. Stronger than just 旧; it implies 'laughably behind the times.'

verb
very oldobsoleteoutdatedclichéd

Examples

  • 老掉牙。
    Zhè ge ruǎn jiàn de shè jì zǎo jiù lǎo diào yá le.
    The design of this software has long been obsolete.
  • 老掉牙，。
    Tā jiǎng de xiào hua lǎo diào yá le, méi rén jué de hǎo xiào.
    The joke he told is so old that nobody finds it funny.
  • 老掉牙，。
    Nà xiē guān diǎn lǎo diào yá, xiàn zài hěn shǎo yǒu rén xiāng xìn le.
    Those views are out of date; few people believe them anymore.

Origin

Compound word
构词法gòucífǎ
主谓zhǔwèiSubject + predicate

A small sentence frozen into a word: something, and what it does or is.

老lǎoold
掉牙lose teeth
掉diàofall off牙yátooth
动宾Verb + object

老 (old) and 掉牙 (teeth drop) suggest something so old that its teeth fall out.

Characters in this word

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

The shape 老 combines 人 (man), 毛 (hair), and 匕 (cane), showing a man with long hair leaning on a cane.

Open 老 →

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

Meaning part形符xíngfú
扌Written in full as手shǒuhand
Sound part声符shēngfú
卓
卓zhuó掉diào
The sound has drifted apartThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

掉 is built from 扌 (a hand) and 卓, which gives the pronunciation.

Open 掉 →

No reliable origin is recorded for this character.

Open 牙 →
Appears in
Idioms & Set PhrasesGood & Bad

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