食不言,寢不語

Chinese

 
eat; food; to feed
eat; food; to feed; animal feed
not; no
 
to speak; to say; talk
to speak; to say; talk; word
lie down not; no
 
speech; language; dialect
speech; language; dialect; tell to
trad. (食不言,寢不語)
simp. (食不言,寝不语)

Etymology

From the Analects:

不語 [Pre-Classical Chinese, trad.]
不语 [Pre-Classical Chinese, simp.]
From: The Classic of Poetry, c. 11th – 7th centuries BCE, translated based on James Legge's version
Jì ròu bù chū sān rì. Chū sān rì, bù shí zhī yǐ. Shí bù yǔ, qǐn bù yán. [Pinyin]
The flesh of his family sacrifice he did not keep over three days. If kept over three days, people could not eat it. When eating, he did not converse. When in bed, he did not speak.

Pronunciation


Idiom

食不言寢不語

  1. to not speak while eating or sleeping
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