Saying Suck up in Chinese
Have you ever wondered how to say “suck up” in Chinese? There’s an interesting idiom that captures being a brown-noser perfectly. Patting a horse’s butt translates into the English equivalent of a suck-up, bootlicker, or brown-noser.
拍馬屁 (Pāi mǎ pì) literally means to pat a horse’s backside, but it also has another meaning in Chinese that is more commonly used which is to denote false flattery.
Do you know why that is?
Origins of拍馬屁 (Pāi mǎ pì)
During the Yuan dynasty, it was common for Chinese to cross paths with Mongols who, while pulling their horses, often patted the horse of the person in front of them, saying “good horse” to gain favor with the horse’s owner.
Later, people started praising each other’s horses regardless of whether the horse was good or bad. Gradually, Chinese people adopted the saying “patting a horse’s butt” as an idiom for flattering your boss. The expression describes blindingly praising someone, no matter the reality.
The Chinese call these sycophants 馬屁精(Mǎpìjīng).
Comparing Chinese and English
In English, patting a horse’s butt can be translated into “brown-noser,” “bootlicker,” or “suck up.”
According to Grammarist.com, brown-noser came into use in the 1930s in the American armed forces. The term is based on the image of the servile position of sticking one’s nose into a superior officer’s backside. Surprisingly, though the idiom has a vulgar origin, the term to brown-nose, though still an insult, is not currently considered particularly offensive.
Bootlicker is a British term for “brown-noser.”
In a lewder context, English speakers use “kiss ass” to denote brown-noser.
Two ways to use 拍馬屁 in Chinese
- 我不喜歡小李，他太喜歡誇張老闆，不停止拍馬屁。
I don’t like little Li; he likes to flatter the boss and never stops sucking up. - 愛拍馬屁的人真不真實，他說話就是說而已。
People who love sucking up are too unreliable, what they say are only words.
Do you have any suck-ups in your orbit? Or have you ever sucked up to someone? Now, when studying Chinese, you can use 拍馬屁 to talk about any brown-nosers that cross your path.
Be careful when patting a horse’s butt; you never know when you might pat the wrong spot and get kicked. Not finished reading? Take a look at the proverb Playing a Lute to a Cow to keep learning about Chinese idioms.
