糗 (qiǔ): embarrassing

Meanings

1 embarrassing
2 embarrassment
3 humiliating moment

Characters

糗

qiǔ

embarrassing; dried grain (archaic)

Examples

HSK 1

太糗了！我叫错了他的名字。

Tài qiǔ le! Wǒ jiào cuò le tā de míngzi.

So embarrassing! I called him by the wrong name.

HSK 1

他出了一个大糗。

Tā chū le yīgè dà qiǔ.

He had a really embarrassing moment.

HSK 7-9

别提了，那件事太糗了。

Biétíle, nà jiàn shì tài qiǔ le.

Don't bring it up, that was too embarrassing.

Tips

register

糗 is very colloquial and common in casual speech, especially in Taiwan. Mainland speakers more often say 丢脸 (diūliǎn) or 尴尬 (gāngà).

usage

As a noun: 出糗 (chūqiǔ) = to embarrass oneself. As an adjective: 太糗了 = so embarrassing.

Components

radical

米 mǐ

rice; grain

Left rice radical - pictograph of grains of rice scattered around a central stem. It marks 糗 as a food character, specifically parched dry grain travelers carried as rations. Same indexing radical: 粉 powder, 粥 porridge, 粒 grain, 糖 sugar - all rice-grain family members.

phonetic

臭 chòu

smelly; rotten

Right 臭 supplies the sound - chòu drifting to qiǔ through palatal shift. It also adds bite: parched rations get stale quickly. Modern Internet slang took the smelly side and ran - 糗事 "embarrassing incident" is now the everyday meaning, more colourful than the original travel-food.