"鹹魚翻身" meaning in Chinese

See 鹹魚翻身 in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

IPA: /ɕi̯ɛn³⁵ y³⁵ fän⁵⁵ ʂən⁵⁵/ [Mandarin, Standard-Chinese, Sinological-IPA], /haːm²¹ jyː²¹⁻³⁵ faːn⁵⁵ sɐn⁵⁵/ [Cantonese, Sinological-IPA], /ɦe²² ŋ̍⁵⁵ fe³³ sən²¹/ [Wu, Northern, Shanghai, Sinological-IPA], /ɦe²² ɦy⁵⁵ fe³³ sən²¹/ [Wu, Northern, Shanghai, Sinological-IPA] Forms: 咸鱼翻身 [Simplified-Chinese]
Etymology: Blend of Cantonese 鹹魚返生/咸鱼返生 (haam4 jyu4-2 faan1 saang1) and 翻身 (fānshēn, “to rise from poverty or slavery”). The Cantonese-specific word 返生 (faan1 saang1, “to be brought back to life”) was changed to the near-homophonic and synonymous 翻身 (fānshēn) when it spread to other varieties of Chinese. Etymology templates: {{bor|cmn|yue|-}} Cantonese, {{zh-l|鹹魚返生|tr=haam4 jyu4-2 faan1 saang1}} 鹹魚返生/咸鱼返生 (haam4 jyu4-2 faan1 saang1), {{zh-l|翻身|to rise from poverty or slavery}} 翻身 (fānshēn, “to rise from poverty or slavery”), {{zh-l|返生|to be brought back to life|tr=faan1 saang1}} 返生 (faan1 saang1, “to be brought back to life”), {{zh-l|翻身}} 翻身 (fānshēn) Head templates: {{zh-verb}} 鹹魚翻身
  1. to suddenly thrive and prosper while seemingly hopeless before; to make a comeback victory
    Sense id: en-鹹魚翻身-zh-verb-fNnS2Mmh Categories (other): Chinese entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cmn",
        "2": "yue",
        "3": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Cantonese",
      "name": "bor"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "鹹魚返生",
        "tr": "haam4 jyu4-2 faan1 saang1"
      },
      "expansion": "鹹魚返生/咸鱼返生 (haam4 jyu4-2 faan1 saang1)",
      "name": "zh-l"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "翻身",
        "2": "to rise from poverty or slavery"
      },
      "expansion": "翻身 (fānshēn, “to rise from poverty or slavery”)",
      "name": "zh-l"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "返生",
        "2": "to be brought back to life",
        "tr": "faan1 saang1"
      },
      "expansion": "返生 (faan1 saang1, “to be brought back to life”)",
      "name": "zh-l"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "翻身"
      },
      "expansion": "翻身 (fānshēn)",
      "name": "zh-l"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Blend of Cantonese 鹹魚返生/咸鱼返生 (haam4 jyu4-2 faan1 saang1) and 翻身 (fānshēn, “to rise from poverty or slavery”). The Cantonese-specific word 返生 (faan1 saang1, “to be brought back to life”) was changed to the near-homophonic and synonymous 翻身 (fānshēn) when it spread to other varieties of Chinese.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "咸鱼翻身",
      "tags": [
        "Simplified-Chinese"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "鹹魚翻身",
      "name": "zh-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Chinese",
  "lang_code": "zh",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Chinese entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_roman_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              14
            ]
          ],
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              4
            ]
          ],
          "english": "Even if the underdog becomes the overdog, he is still a dog.",
          "raw_tags": [
            "MSC"
          ],
          "roman": "xiányú fānshēn háishì xiányú",
          "tags": [
            "Pinyin",
            "Traditional-Chinese"
          ],
          "text": "鹹魚翻身還是鹹魚",
          "translation": "Even if the underdog becomes the overdog, he is still a dog.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_roman_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              14
            ]
          ],
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              4
            ]
          ],
          "english": "Even if the underdog becomes the overdog, he is still a dog.",
          "raw_tags": [
            "MSC"
          ],
          "roman": "xiányú fānshēn háishì xiányú",
          "tags": [
            "Pinyin",
            "Simplified-Chinese"
          ],
          "text": "咸鱼翻身还是咸鱼",
          "translation": "Even if the underdog becomes the overdog, he is still a dog.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to suddenly thrive and prosper while seemingly hopeless before; to make a comeback victory"
      ],
      "id": "en-鹹魚翻身-zh-verb-fNnS2Mmh",
      "links": [
        [
          "thrive",
          "thrive"
        ],
        [
          "prosper",
          "prosper"
        ],
        [
          "hopeless",
          "hopeless"
        ],
        [
          "comeback",
          "comeback"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "xiányú fānshēn"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ㄒㄧㄢˊ ㄩˊ ㄈㄢ ㄕㄣ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Jyutping"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "haam⁴ jyu⁴⁻² faan¹ san¹"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Wugniu"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Shanghai"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "⁶ghe-ng-fe-sen"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Wugniu"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Shanghai"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "⁶ghe-yu-fe-sen"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "xiányú fānshēn"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ㄒㄧㄢˊ ㄩˊ ㄈㄢ ㄕㄣ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Tongyong-Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "siányú fanshen"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Wade-Giles"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "hsien²-yü² fan¹-shên¹"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Yale"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "syán-yú fān-shēn"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Gwoyeu-Romatsyh"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "shyanyu fanshen"
    },
    {
      "roman": "sjanʹjuj fanʹšɛnʹ",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Palladius"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "сяньюй фаньшэнь"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɕi̯ɛn³⁵ y³⁵ fän⁵⁵ ʂən⁵⁵/",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Guangzhou–Hong Kong–Macau",
        "Standard-Cantonese"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Jyutping"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "haam⁴ jyu⁴⁻² faan¹ san¹"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Guangzhou–Hong Kong–Macau",
        "Standard-Cantonese"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Yale"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "hàahm yú fāan sān"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Guangzhou–Hong Kong–Macau",
        "Standard-Cantonese"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Cantonese",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "haam⁴ jy⁴⁻² faan¹ san¹"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Guangzhou–Hong Kong–Macau",
        "Standard-Cantonese"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Guangdong-Romanization"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ham⁴ yu⁴⁻² fan¹ sen¹"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/haːm²¹ jyː²¹⁻³⁵ faːn⁵⁵ sɐn⁵⁵/",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Guangzhou–Hong Kong–Macau",
        "Standard-Cantonese"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Wugniu"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "⁶ghe-ng-fe-sen"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Wugniu"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "⁶ghe-yu-fe-sen"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "MiniDict"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ghe^去 ng fe sen"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "MiniDict"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ghe^去 yu fe sen"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai",
        "Wiktionary-specific",
        "romanization"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "³hhe-ngg-fe-sen"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai",
        "Wiktionary-specific",
        "romanization"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "³hhe-hhy-fe-sen"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɦe²² ŋ̍⁵⁵ fe³³ sən²¹/",
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɦe²² ɦy⁵⁵ fe³³ sən²¹/",
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "鹹魚翻身"
}
{
  "etymology_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "cmn",
        "2": "yue",
        "3": "-"
      },
      "expansion": "Cantonese",
      "name": "bor"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "鹹魚返生",
        "tr": "haam4 jyu4-2 faan1 saang1"
      },
      "expansion": "鹹魚返生/咸鱼返生 (haam4 jyu4-2 faan1 saang1)",
      "name": "zh-l"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "翻身",
        "2": "to rise from poverty or slavery"
      },
      "expansion": "翻身 (fānshēn, “to rise from poverty or slavery”)",
      "name": "zh-l"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "返生",
        "2": "to be brought back to life",
        "tr": "faan1 saang1"
      },
      "expansion": "返生 (faan1 saang1, “to be brought back to life”)",
      "name": "zh-l"
    },
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "翻身"
      },
      "expansion": "翻身 (fānshēn)",
      "name": "zh-l"
    }
  ],
  "etymology_text": "Blend of Cantonese 鹹魚返生/咸鱼返生 (haam4 jyu4-2 faan1 saang1) and 翻身 (fānshēn, “to rise from poverty or slavery”). The Cantonese-specific word 返生 (faan1 saang1, “to be brought back to life”) was changed to the near-homophonic and synonymous 翻身 (fānshēn) when it spread to other varieties of Chinese.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "咸鱼翻身",
      "tags": [
        "Simplified-Chinese"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "鹹魚翻身",
      "name": "zh-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "Chinese",
  "lang_code": "zh",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "Cantonese lemmas",
        "Cantonese verbs",
        "Chinese entries with incorrect language header",
        "Chinese lemmas",
        "Chinese terms spelled with 翻",
        "Chinese terms spelled with 身",
        "Chinese terms spelled with 魚",
        "Chinese terms spelled with 鹹",
        "Chinese terms with IPA pronunciation",
        "Chinese verbs",
        "Mandarin lemmas",
        "Mandarin terms borrowed from Cantonese",
        "Mandarin terms derived from Cantonese",
        "Mandarin terms with usage examples",
        "Mandarin verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries",
        "Wu lemmas",
        "Wu verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "bold_roman_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              14
            ]
          ],
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              4
            ]
          ],
          "english": "Even if the underdog becomes the overdog, he is still a dog.",
          "raw_tags": [
            "MSC"
          ],
          "roman": "xiányú fānshēn háishì xiányú",
          "tags": [
            "Pinyin",
            "Traditional-Chinese"
          ],
          "text": "鹹魚翻身還是鹹魚",
          "translation": "Even if the underdog becomes the overdog, he is still a dog.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "bold_roman_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              14
            ]
          ],
          "bold_text_offsets": [
            [
              0,
              4
            ]
          ],
          "english": "Even if the underdog becomes the overdog, he is still a dog.",
          "raw_tags": [
            "MSC"
          ],
          "roman": "xiányú fānshēn háishì xiányú",
          "tags": [
            "Pinyin",
            "Simplified-Chinese"
          ],
          "text": "咸鱼翻身还是咸鱼",
          "translation": "Even if the underdog becomes the overdog, he is still a dog.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "to suddenly thrive and prosper while seemingly hopeless before; to make a comeback victory"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "thrive",
          "thrive"
        ],
        [
          "prosper",
          "prosper"
        ],
        [
          "hopeless",
          "hopeless"
        ],
        [
          "comeback",
          "comeback"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "xiányú fānshēn"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ㄒㄧㄢˊ ㄩˊ ㄈㄢ ㄕㄣ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Jyutping"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "haam⁴ jyu⁴⁻² faan¹ san¹"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Wugniu"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Shanghai"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "⁶ghe-ng-fe-sen"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Wugniu"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Shanghai"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "⁶ghe-yu-fe-sen"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "xiányú fānshēn"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Bopomofo"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ㄒㄧㄢˊ ㄩˊ ㄈㄢ ㄕㄣ"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Tongyong-Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "siányú fanshen"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Wade-Giles"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "hsien²-yü² fan¹-shên¹"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Yale"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "syán-yú fān-shēn"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Gwoyeu-Romatsyh"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "shyanyu fanshen"
    },
    {
      "roman": "sjanʹjuj fanʹšɛnʹ",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Palladius"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "сяньюй фаньшэнь"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɕi̯ɛn³⁵ y³⁵ fän⁵⁵ ʂən⁵⁵/",
      "tags": [
        "Mandarin",
        "Standard-Chinese",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Guangzhou–Hong Kong–Macau",
        "Standard-Cantonese"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Jyutping"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "haam⁴ jyu⁴⁻² faan¹ san¹"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Guangzhou–Hong Kong–Macau",
        "Standard-Cantonese"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Yale"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "hàahm yú fāan sān"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Guangzhou–Hong Kong–Macau",
        "Standard-Cantonese"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Cantonese",
        "Pinyin"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "haam⁴ jy⁴⁻² faan¹ san¹"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Guangzhou–Hong Kong–Macau",
        "Standard-Cantonese"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Guangdong-Romanization"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ham⁴ yu⁴⁻² fan¹ sen¹"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/haːm²¹ jyː²¹⁻³⁵ faːn⁵⁵ sɐn⁵⁵/",
      "raw_tags": [
        "Guangzhou–Hong Kong–Macau",
        "Standard-Cantonese"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Cantonese",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Wugniu"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "⁶ghe-ng-fe-sen"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "Wugniu"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "⁶ghe-yu-fe-sen"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "MiniDict"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ghe^去 ng fe sen"
    },
    {
      "raw_tags": [
        "MiniDict"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "ghe^去 yu fe sen"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai",
        "Wiktionary-specific",
        "romanization"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "³hhe-ngg-fe-sen"
    },
    {
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai",
        "Wiktionary-specific",
        "romanization"
      ],
      "zh_pron": "³hhe-hhy-fe-sen"
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɦe²² ŋ̍⁵⁵ fe³³ sən²¹/",
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    },
    {
      "ipa": "/ɦe²² ɦy⁵⁵ fe³³ sən²¹/",
      "tags": [
        "Wu",
        "Northern",
        "Shanghai",
        "Sinological-IPA"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "鹹魚翻身"
}

Download raw JSONL data for 鹹魚翻身 meaning in Chinese (5.5kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable Chinese dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-09-27 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-09-20 using wiktextract (fc15ba6 and 1ab82da). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.