[成语] 不郎不秀 Vs 不稂不莠
kimiik
December 05, 2008, 02:05 PM posted in General Discussion不郎不秀 (bùlángbùxiù) and 不稂不莠 (bùlángbùyǒu) are two Chenyu meaning useless.
But from the characters, I wonder if 不郎不秀 concerns only people and 不稂不莠 concerns only nature or if both are generic expressions of uselessness.
changye
December 09, 2008, 12:12 AMIt seems that "不稂不莠" originally meant "weedless field = well kept field", but later obtained the same meaning as that of "不郎不秀" (useless, no talent). So both can be applied to people now.
uoyevol
December 09, 2008, 12:37 AM不良不莠is often used,
不郎不秀 (bùlángbùxiù) and 不稂不莠 (bùlángbùyǒu)
are seldom used, there's no necessary to learn them.
changye
December 09, 2008, 01:31 AMHi uoyevol,
I can't find 不良不莠 in any dictionary, both paper and online. I guess that 不郎不秀 is much more commonly used than 不稂不莠. Anyway, thanks to you guys, I memorized these chengyus completely!
uoyevol
December 09, 2008, 01:58 AMi'm so sorry, it's my fault, it's 良莠不齐 means useless and talented are mixed together,not all of them are good enough.
there's no 不良不莠 offcially but you can say it.
it means something is mediocre,not good either bad.
but you know it's quite rare to see 不郎不秀 or 不稂不莠,unless you read some ficitions or ancient Chinese.
I haven't see them for years.
kimiik
December 09, 2008, 09:07 AMThanks Changye and Uoyevol for the clarification.
About 良莠不齐, I just checked Google to see some usual derivations of this Chengyu and thought I would find a funny 良莠不起 but only found 良莠不其.
There' re also lots of opposite expressions like 良莠不分 , 良莠不全 and 良莠不一
kimiik
December 09, 2008, 09:52 AMOops, 良莠不起 appears in many gov.cn webpages. ;o)
kimiik
December 08, 2008, 06:03 PMI'm surprised there's still no answer for this question.
I really thought that would be a "quicky".