花痴??

[laohu489]

My gf and I were talking and she used a word, 花痴. Basically, from what I understand, it sounds like someone who is in love with being in love. None of my dictionaries have it and defs I find on other sites are contradictory or inaccurate. Can anyone clarify this word for me? Is there a single word or phrase in English that fits?

[miss_China_so_much]

In some occasions, it's similar to "fancy" or "have a crush".

If it refers to a person, it usually means this person easily falls in love with other people or has a tendency of crushing on other people, mostly not in a romantical way. It is a modern slang

[adrianlondon]

Wenlin gives "nymphomaniac" and nothing else.

[HashiriKata]

I'm a 花痴 because I'm very fond (痴) of flowers (花). Some people call me "anthomaniac"!

PS: You can find 花痴 in http://dict.cn/en but beware that it's likely to be wrong!

[Lu]

As I know this word it's something like a female playboy, a woman who likes guys a lot, and who likes to like guys. Not as serious as a nymphomaniac.

[laohu489]

Yeah, I don't think it means anything as serious as nympho. From what I gather, it might be a female 花心 but I'm not 100% sure. Can you be 花痴about just one person or star or is it a repeated phenomenon over time, today you love Tom Cruise and tomorrow it is Brad Pitt.

Just need to know so next time my gf 发花痴 i know what to expect.

[jade-]

花痴 is not a very good word, but it cannot be too bad.

A 花痴 is a person who is love craving and wishes obsessively to fall in love with and be loved by someone who may lack interest in him/her. Since he/she is so desperate, he/she intensively works on making a love affair towards the targeted person. In order to gain the targeted person’s affection, he/she uses the passive-aggressive, sometimes low self-esteem, mostly unsuccessful methods to harass the victim (the targeted person), such as: weeping, pleading, self-torturing, following the victim around, sending non-stop love messages, etc., although all these methods are non violent and they mostly bring fruitless results. When we call a person 花痴 , it is more or less equal to 神经病 when we snapped at someone. Only a 花痴‘s insanity is single-mindedly focused on the love affair, besides that, he/she is pretty much a normal person.

花痴 might be originally used on female but now can be used on both female and male. At least I used it on men several times before and none of Chinese protested my usage of it on men when they heard me.

You also could call a person 花痴 who in fact only simply obsesses about the flowers, but the obsession has to be so out-of-control that beyond an average person’s comprehension.

I suspect 花痴 originally came from《红楼梦》里林黛玉的葬花词：“侬今葬花人笑痴，他年葬侬知是谁”。Just my personal opinion though.

[awela]

看到这个帖子我的牙都要笑掉了

Seeing this post I laughed to almost dropping my teeth

Literally, 花is flower, 痴means mentally ill/obsessed.

To comprehend it can equally means 为花而痴(become obsessed/mentally ill for flower), then it extends the meaning to 为花而痴的人(someone that become obsessed for flower)

So originally 花痴 is a behavior, and is neutral without likes and dislikes judgement. later on the meaning gets extended. Now most of time 花 indicates women/girls. It becomes some slang that girls will use to describe a man or his behavior. So the meaning becomes: someone that is obsessed for girls(especially ANY girls), or that kind of behavior.

Grammer: it can be noun, or intrasive verb, but in most of circumstance it's NOT transive verb

BTW, usually it will be used to describe man. appliable to woman but it sound very rare and dramatic in China.

[trien27]

In some occasions, it's similar to "fancy" or "have a crush".

If it refers to a person, it usually means this person easily falls in love with other people or has a tendency of crushing on other people, mostly not in a romantical way. It is a modern slang

I don't think it's modern slang. I just heard 花痴 being used in a traditional Chinese drama, so it could be from ancient Chinese usage, not modern Chinese, unless it's somewhat of an anachronism? The drama is set in the last years of the Qing dynasty which ended in 1911.

[skylee]

I am curious, which drama?

[trien27]

This is the drama: 巾幗梟雄 from Hong Kong. This name is used in the USA / New York. But it might have a different name in Hong Kong. Usually, the name that they have at the start of production is kept as the name used in Hong Kong. But when it's shipped elsewhere, it might or might not use the same name.

Edited May 29, 2009 at 01:32 AM by trien27
additional infomation

[trien27]

Literally, 花is flower, 痴means mentally ill/obsessed.

To comprehend it can equally means 为花而痴(become obsessed/mentally ill for flower), then it extends the meaning to 为花而痴的人(someone that become obsessed for flower)

Somewhat related, but has the opposite meaning when compared with 花痴:

Reminds me of the word "Narcissist", a person who's obsessed with oneself. Narcissus is the name of a flower.

Literally speaking 花痴 could be anyone obsessed by flowers, then put this obsession on themselves or others to an extent where it can no longer be controlled.

Edited May 29, 2009 at 01:42 AM by trien27
grammar correction

[Music&MeForever]

花痴 is an incurable desease and refers to flower-eaters: 爱吃花的人, 见花就要吃，就叫花痴 :wink:

花痴 as uncontrolled obsession with flowers is attributed to Lin Dayu in Hongloumeng because she made a funeral for a flower, which she took to represnt herself, her youth and her death. The poem is called 葬花吟. It ends with 一朝春尽红颜老，花落人亡两不知 which tells of the passing of youth and the coming of death (like withered flowers human life returns to dust)

In modern Chinese it is used as phrase to describe emotional obsession, and usually refers to teenage girls who easily fall in love with good looking guys or celebrities etc but usually it is used as joke and is not offensive in meaning.

Has got nothing to do with narcissism "Narcissist" would be: 自我陶醉者

[xiaocai]

I'm a 花痴 because I'm very fond (痴) of flowers (花). Some people call me "anthomaniac"!

"Narcissist" would be: 自我陶醉者

I think 自恋狂 would be the more common translation.

[Music&MeForever]

I think 自恋狂 would be the more common translation.

Seems your dictionary is better than mine (or you're a native speaker)

I like 自恋狂 Thx