八卦(bāguà) gossip
Yi Jing, also named The Book of Changes, says: “Yin and Yang form Tai Chi; Tai Chi forms two-stage; two-stage forms four-quadrant and four-quadrant forms Eight Diagrams.” A founder of a gossip magazine in Hong Kong thinks that various gossip in the world are formed from what happened in the world, just like Yin and Yang breed Eight Diagrams. So the gossip magazine is named 八卦(bāguà).
In 八卦(bāguà), 八(bā) means the number eight and 卦(guà) refers to divinatory trigram. But now, 八卦(bāguà) is widely used to refer to a kind of attitude or behavior where people are keen on asking, guessing, or gossiping upon others’ private affairs. So the origin meaning of 八卦(bāguà) is used less often.
八卦(bāguà) can be used as noun, adjective and verb. For example:
(1) n. gossip
八卦新闻(bāguà xīnwén) gossip news
八卦杂志(bāguà zázhì) gossip magazine
八卦媒体(bāguà méitĭ) gossip media
(2) adj. gossipy
Tā shì gè hěn bāguà de rén.
她 是 个 很 八卦 的 人。
She is very gossipy.
Bié nàme bāguà!
别 那么 八卦！
Don’t be so gossipy!
(3) v. gossip∕spread rumors
Tā yòu yào kāishĭ bāguà le.
她 又 要 开始 八卦 了。
She will start to gossip right now.
Zhè rén méi shìér jiù ài bāguà.
这 人 没 事儿 就 爱 八卦。
This person is keen on spreading rumors.
美眉(měiméi) beautiful girl
美眉(měiméi) was first used in an Internet novel which became very popular. Literally speaking, 美眉(měiméi) means pretty eyebrows or beautifying eyebrow because 美(měi) means beautiful and 眉(méi) refers to eyebrows. Now however, 美眉(měiméi) refers to beautiful young girls. Sometimes this phrase is also used in the form of MM.
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