本草纲目

    běncǎo gāngmùMeaning:

    This expression is popular with youngsters when they call a person stupid, noisy and dull. It borrows from the title of an ancient Chinese medicine encyclopedia, “Compendium of Materia Medica,” by playing on the four Chinese characters, which respectively sound similar to 笨(stupid), 吵(noisy), 戆 (simple-minded) and 木(unresponsive).

    Example:

    A: 有些日子没见到苏菲了。她在忙什么呢？

    Yǒuxiē rìzǐ méi jiàndào sūfēi le。Tā zài máng shénme ne？

    I haven’t seen Sophie for some days. What has she been up to?

    B: 你难道不知道吗？她在谈恋爱。

    Nǐ nándào bù zhīdào ma？ Tā zài tán liànài。

    Didn’t you know? She has been dating someone new.

    A: 她男朋友长得帅么？

    Tā nánpéngyǒu zhǎng de shuài me？

    Is her boyfriend handsome?

    B: 长得很帅，就是感觉有点本草纲目。

    Zhǎng de hěn shuài, jiùshì gǎnjué yǒudiǎner běncǎo gāngmù。

    He’s very handsome, but looks a little bit dumb.