三长两短
三長兩短Meanings
CC-CEDICT
- 1.unexpected misfortune
- 2.unexpected accident
- 3.sudden death
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Wiktionary
- 1.unexpected misfortune; unexpected accident; sudden death
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Etymology
Extended from 長短 /长短 (chángduǎn), which already has the meaning of “mishap”. 三 and 兩 /两 are two arbitrary numbers which can also mean “some” (see 二三 (èrsān) and 三兩 /三两 (sānliǎng)). Folk etymology states that the term is a euphemism referring to a coffin, which consists of 3 pieces of long and 2 pieces of short wood excluding the cover.
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA
Stroke order
Components
Components from cjk-decomp · MIT
Characters
More examples & usage (AI)
Synonyms
Wiktionary · CC BY-SA