Niubi! Read Online Free PDF Page B

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    Useless, stupid, a good-for-nothing. Literally “no ambition.”
     
    弱智 ruòzhì ( rwuh jih )
    Idiotic, stupid. Literally “mentally enfeebled.”
     
    玩儿闹 wánr nào ( warr now )
    Troublemaker, ruffian. Also means “to fool around” or “to run wild.” Beijing slang only. Literally “play and quarrel” or “play and loudly stir up.”
     
    冤大头 yuān dàtóu ( yren dah toe )
    Fool. Literally “wrong bighead.”
     
    浑球儿 hún qíur ( hwen chyurr )
    Good-for-nothing, rascal. Literally “unclear ball.” 浑 hun means “unclear” or “dirty,” as in 浑水 hún shuǐ ( hwen shway ), or “dirty water.” Typically employed by parents to reprimand their kids. Used in northern China.
     
    脑残 nǎocán ( now tsahn )
    Means “mental retardation” or “a mental disability” and is a popular insult among young people. One usage is 你脑残吗? nǐ nǎocán ma? ( nee now tsahn ma ), meaning “Are you retarded?” or “Is there something wrong with your head?”
     
    脑有屎 nǎo yǒu shǐ ( now yo shih ) or 脑子里有屎 nǎozi lǐ yǒu shǐ ( now dz lee yo shih )
    Shit in the brain. Popular among young people.

The supernatural
    瘟神 wēn shén ( when shen )
    A mild insult along the lines of “troublemaker.” Literally “god of plague,” referring to Chinese mythology. Considered old-fashioned now in much of China, but still used quite a bit in Sichuan Province and some southern areas.
     
    鬼 guǐ ( gway )
    Means “devil” or “ghost.” Not typically used as an insult in of itself, but often added onto adjectives to turn them into pejoratives. For example, if you think someone is selfish, or 小气 xiǎo qì ( shyaow chee ), you might call them a 小气鬼 xiǎo qì guǐ ( shyaow chee gway ), literally “selfish devil.”
     
    见鬼 jiànguǐ ( jyinn gway )
    Literally “see a ghost.” Can be exclaimed alone to mean something like “Damn it!” or “Crap!” or “Oh shit!” But it is not profane like some of those English equivalents. Can also be used as an intensifier, as in 你见鬼去吧! nǐ jiànguǐ qù ba! ( nee jinn gway chee bah ), which literally translates as “you see a ghost leave” but means “Go to hell!” or “Fuck off!” or “Get the hell out of my face!”

Rural insults
    土 tǔ ( too )
    A pejorative with a broad range of meanings. It literally means “dirt” or “earth” and, most broadly, is used to describe an unsophisticated or uncultured person, much like “redneck” or “yokel” or “hick.” Someone who spits on the floor while indoors, doesn’t line up to buy things, or who can’t figure out how to use the ticket-vending machine in the subway, might be called tǔ . Tǔ can also be a generic, somewhat all-purpose put-down, like “dork.” More recently, tǔ refers to someone out of touch with aspects of modern society—for example, who doesn’t know how to use the Internet.
     
    土包子 tǔ bāozi ( too baow dz )
    Someone who is tǔ . ( Tǔ is an adjective while tǔ bāozi is a noun.) One explanation for this term is that 包子 bāozi (a steamed, breadlike bun with meat or vegetable filling) is a common food in poor, rural areas, and so tǔ bāozi indicates that the person comes from the countryside.
     
    老冒儿 lǎo màor ( laow murr —the first syllable rhymes with “cow,” and the second rhymes with “burr”)
    Northern Chinese slang for tǔ . Literally “old stupid” (though it can be said of anyone, not just old people). 冒 Mào is slang for “stupid” or “inexperienced” but is seldom used by itself anymore.
     
    土得掉渣儿 tǔ de diào zhār ( to duh dyow jar )
    Ignorant, hick, unrefined. Literally “bumpkin shedding dirt,” suggesting that someone is so tǔ that dirt is falling off them. Used in northeast China.
     
    农民 nóngmín ( nohng meen — nóng has a long o sound, like in “bone”)
    Literally means “farmer” or “peasant” (unlike in English, “peasant” is a