二赖子，二愣子，二憨子，二混子

[yersi]

Going through 菊豆 with the subs2srs program, I came across the word 二赖子 èrlàizi - "shameless loafer", and immediately associated it with a word I'd learned before, 二愣子 èrlèngzi - "idiot". By searching Wenlin I found two other similar words 二憨子 and 二混子.

As far as I can tell, 子 is used as a suffix here to make an adjective into a noun, but what function does 二 have in these words?

[roddy]

There's also (I just found) 三青子, 三孙子, 四楞子. Not sure of the reasoning behind any of them though.

[roddy]

I just had a quick look through the ABC (words starting with 三，四, etc, then find '子') as I was curious as to whether or not there were more similar terms start with two than three, etc.

[HashiriKata]

I think 二 has acquired its derogatory sense out of being associated with 二等，二手，二把手，etc., and seems to mean something very close to "stupid/ muddleheaded" in the words cited above. This feeling seems to be confirmed by the word 二百五, which simply means a stupid person. What I'm interested to know is how 百五 is invloved in this. Native Chinese speakers may know something about the origin of this 百五 or 二百五 ??

[roddy]

二 can be used on it's own as a bit of an insult - as the link says,it's a bit stupider than stupid and bordering on deficient. There are explanations for 二百五 here, such as four criminals handing themselves in to get a 1000 . . . whatever it was, closed that tab now . . reward split four ways (hence 250) and getting executed (hence stuipd).

[HashiriKata]

Thank you, Roddy, good finds!

[Mangix]

In some area of China, "二" equals "stupid". And "子" is pronoun.