Why does eating vinegar(吃醋) mean jealous？Why not sauce？

[Dandy Jiang]

Today a foreign friend asked me:“Why do Chinese say 吃醋-eating vinegar instead of 吃酱油-eating sauce？”

今天一位外国朋友问了一个很有意思的问题：“在汉语里为什么吃醋？不吃酱油？”

 

1. What does “吃醋” mean？
 
【吃醋 chīcù】
a metaphor
be jealous (usu. of a rival in love):

 

 

 

 

2. Why do we use “吃醋” mean be jealous？

       
        According to legend, the word was related to a historical personage, whose name was Fang Xuanling. He was a prime minister in the Tang Dynasty. The emperor Li Shimin gave Fang Xuanling several beauties as his concubines because of his contributions to the court.

        相传这跟中国的一位历史人物有关。他的名字叫房玄龄，是唐朝的一位宰相。由于房玄龄为朝廷做了很大的贡献，皇帝李世民赏赐给他几个美女作妾。

        Fang's wife was so jealous and sad that she strongly disagreed. The emperor asked her furiously:"Do you want to live without jealousy or die with jealousy?"
        房玄龄的老婆又嫉妒又伤心，坚决不同意。皇帝非常生气，问她：“你是想丢掉嫉妒心活着，还是想带着嫉妒心去死？”
       
        She answered without hesitation:"I'd rather die with jealousy."

        她毫不犹豫地回答：“我宁愿带着嫉妒心去死。”

        So the emperor sent a secretary with a pot of poisonous wine to her. She took it over without a word and emptied the pot with one draught.       

       于是，皇帝派人送了一壶毒酒给她，她一句话都没说，接过来毒酒喝得干干净净。

     

       At last, she wasn't poisoned. It turned out that what the emperor gave her was vinegar, not poisonous wine. And the emperor didn't want her to die, but wanted to test and frighten her.

       结果她并没有死。原来皇帝给她的不是毒酒，而是醋；皇帝也不是真的让她死，而是想考验、吓唬她一下。

   

        Since then, people use “吃醋” to mean jealous.

       从此以后，人们就用“吃醋”这个词表示“嫉妒”。

 

3. 为什么是“吃”不是“喝”？
 
In ancient Chinese, 吃 meant both eat and drink. For example: 吃酒=drink wine; 吃茶=drink tea.

在古代汉语中，“吃”的意思是eat, 也是drink。 比如：吃酒、吃茶。

 

4. 这个词在生活中怎么用？

 

We often use this word in spoken Chinese. For example:

在口语中，我们常常用“吃醋”这个词。比如：

-Don't always talk to her! I‘m jealous! 

-你别老跟她说话，我吃醋了！

-Why are you jealous everyday?

-你怎么每天都吃醋啊？

-I'm jealous just because I like you! 

-我吃醋是因为我喜欢你啊！

[lips]

Good.