蛇足

蛇足

Chinese

		snake; serpent	foot; to be sufficient
simp. and trad. (蛇足)		蛇	足

Etymology

From the idiom 畫蛇添足／画蛇添足 (huàshétiānzú).

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): shézú

  (Zhuyin): ㄕㄜˊ ㄗㄨˊ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): se⁴ zuk¹

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Pinyin: shézú
    • Zhuyin: ㄕㄜˊ ㄗㄨˊ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: shertzwu
    • Tongyong Pinyin: shézú
    • IPA ^(key): /ʂɤ³⁵ t͡su³⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: se⁴ zuk¹
    • Yale: sèh jūk
    • Cantonese Pinyin: se⁴ dzuk⁷
    • Guangdong Romanization: sé⁴ zug¹
    • IPA ^(key): /sɛː²¹ t͡sʊk̚⁵/

Noun

蛇足

1. (figuratively) something superfluous; unnecessary

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Japanese

Kanji in this term
蛇	足
だ Grade: S	そく Grade: 1
on’yomi

Etymology

From 蛇 (だ) (da, “snake”) + 足 (そく) (soku, “foot”), literally meaning snake's foot (which is useless).

A contraction of 画 (が)蛇 (だ)添 (てん)足 (そく) (gada tensoku), which is from the Chinese idiom 畫蛇添足／画蛇添足 (huàshétiānzú).

Pronunciation

• On’yomi
  • IPA^(key): [da̠so̞kɯ̟ᵝ]

Noun

蛇足 (hiragana だそく, rōmaji dasoku)

1. something useless; unnecessary; superfluous