差強人意

See also: 差强人意

Chinese

	differ from; short of; to lack differ from; short of; to lack; poor; send; a messenger; a mission; to commission; uneven; difference; discrepancy; to differ; error; to err; to make a mistake	strength; force; power strength; force; power; powerful; better	man; person; people	idea; meaning; wish idea; meaning; wish; desire; (abbr.) Italy
trad. (差強人意)	差	強	人	意
simp. (差强人意)	差	强	人	意
variant forms	差彊人意

帝時遣人觀大司馬何為，還言方修戰攻之具，乃嘆曰：「吳公差彊人意，隱若一敵國矣。」 [Classical Chinese, trad.][▼ expand/hide]

From: The Book of the Later Han, circa 5^th century CE

Dì shí qiǎn rén guān dàsīmǎ hé wèi, hái yán fāng xiū zhàngōng zhī jù, nǎi tàn yuē: “Wúgōng chāqiángrényì, yǐn ruò yī dí guó yǐ.” [Pinyin]

(please add an English translation of this example)

Sense #2 is a recent re-interpretation of the 差 in this idiom as “below standard”.

Mandarin
(Pinyin): chāqiángrényì, chàqiángrényì

(Zhuyin): ㄔㄚㄑㄧㄤˊ ㄖㄣˊ ㄧˋ, ㄔㄚˋ ㄑㄧㄤˊ ㄖㄣˊ ㄧˋ
Cantonese (Jyutping): caa¹ koeng⁴ jan⁴ ji³

差強人意

(approvingly) just passable; fair; adequate
(neologism, disapprovingly) below standard and not quite satisfactory; barely acceptable; not that great; just ok; not the bomb

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