猴年馬月

猴年馬月

Chinese

		monkey	year	horse; surname	moon; month
trad. (猴年馬月)		猴	年	馬	月
simp. (猴年马月)		猴	年	马	月
Literally: “monkey year, horse month”.

Etymology

From 驢年馬月／驴年马月 (“year of the donkey (in the Zodiac); God knows when”).

Alternatively, from dialectal 何年嘛月 (“what year, what month?”).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): hóuniánmǎyuè

  (Zhuyin): ㄏㄡˊ ㄋㄧㄢˊ ㄇㄚˇ ㄩㄝˋ

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Pinyin: hóuniánmǎyuè
    • Zhuyin: ㄏㄡˊ ㄋㄧㄢˊ ㄇㄚˇ ㄩㄝˋ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: hournianmaayueh
    • IPA ^(key): /xoʊ̯³⁵ ni̯ɛn³⁵ mä²¹⁴⁻²¹¹ y̯œ⁵¹/
      
  • (Standard Chinese, erhua-ed)⁺
    • Pinyin: hóurniánmǎyuè
    • Zhuyin: ㄏㄡˊㄦ ㄋㄧㄢˊ ㄇㄚˇ ㄩㄝˋ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: hourlnianmaayueh
    • IPA ^(key): /xɤʊɻʷ³⁵ ni̯ɛn³⁵ mä²¹⁴⁻²¹¹ y̯œ⁵¹/

Idiom

猴年馬月

1. an unknown and long time; donkey's years; God knows when