空穴來風
Chinese
emptied; leisure; air emptied; leisure; air; sky; empty; in vain | hole; cave | to come | wind; news; style wind; news; style; custom; manner | ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
trad. (空穴來風) | 空 | 穴 | 來 | 風 | |
simp. (空穴来风) | 空 | 穴 | 来 | 风 | |
Literally: “wind from an empty cave”. |
Etymology
From 《風賦》 by Song Yu:
- 枳句來巢,空穴來風。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
- From: Song Yu, 《風賦》
- Zhǐ gōu lái cháo, kōng xué lái fēng. [Pinyin]
- It takes a bent trifoliate orange tree to attract birds to nest and an empty cave to get the wind.
枳句来巢,空穴来风。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
Pronunciation
Idiom
空穴來風
- (of a rumour, literary, dated) to be not completely unsound; to have a basis for its existence
- (of a rumour, in modern uses) to be completely unsound; to be utterly baseless