省吃俭用 (shěng chī jiǎn yòng) — to live frugally; to economize on food and daily expenses

Definition

Idiom meaning 'live very frugally,' cutting back on food and daily spending to save money. Used for people, not businesses or governments.

idiom
to live frugallyto economize on food and daily expenses

Examples

  • ，省吃俭用。
    Wèi le zǎn qián mǎi fáng, tā men yì jiā yì zhí shěng chī jiǎn yòng.
    To save up for a house, their family has been living frugally all along.
  • 省吃俭用，。
    Tā shěng chī jiǎn yòng dì guò le jǐ nián, zhōng yú huán qīng le zhài wù.
    He lived frugally for several years and finally paid off his debts.
  • 省吃俭用。
    Yé ye nǎi nai cóng xiǎo jiù jiào yù wǒ men yào shěng chī jiǎn yòng.
    Grandparents taught us from a young age to live frugally.

Origin

Characters in this word

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

The upper part of 省 is a changed form of 生, which gave the sound, while the lower 目 is an eye; the picture showed looking closely or inspecting.

Open 省 →

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
口口kǒumouth
Sound part声符shēngfú
乞
乞qǐ吃chī
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

吃 combines 口 (mouth) with 乞, which gives the sound; it originally wrote a word meaning to stutter.

Open 吃 →

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 儉; 俭 is its simplified writing.

Meaning part形符xíngfú
人人rénperson
Sound part声符shēngfú
僉
僉qiān儉jiǎn
Close in sound todayThe sound part was a clue two thousand years ago — it often still helps, but not always.

The traditional form 儉 pairs 人 (person) with 僉 as a sound part; the simplified 俭 is a later shorthand, so its parts are not the historical components.

Open 俭 →

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

用 was formed by adding a handle to an earlier form.

Open 用 →

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