蛇王

Chinese

		snake; serpent	king; Wang (proper name)
simp. and trad. (蛇王)		蛇	王
anagram		王蛇

Etymology

The sense of "slack off" or "lazy" compares a hibernating snake with human.

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): se⁴ wong⁴

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• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: se⁴ wong⁴
    • Yale: sèh wòhng
    • Cantonese Pinyin: se⁴ wong⁴
    • Guangdong Romanization: sé⁴ wong⁴
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /sɛː²¹ wɔːŋ²¹/

Noun

蛇王

1. (Cantonese) lazy person
2. (Hong Kong) owner of a shop that sells snake soup and catches snakes in the neighborhood

Usage notes

The names of shops run by snake catchers are usually in the form 蛇王X, where X is one of the characters in the owner's name.

Synonyms

edit

• 大食懶 / 大食懒 (daai⁶ sik⁶ laan⁵) (Cantonese)
• 懶人 / 懒人 (lǎnrén)
• 懶佬 / 懒佬 (laan⁵ lou²) (Cantonese)
• 懶屍嫲 / 懒尸嫲 (Hakka)
• 懶屍牯 / 懒尸牯 (Hakka)
• 懶屍鬼 / 懒尸鬼 (Hakka, Min Nan)
• 懶鬼 / 懒鬼 (lǎnguǐ)

Variety	Location	Words edit
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		懶人, 懶漢, 懶蟲, 懶蟲, 懶骨頭, 懶蛋
Northeastern Mandarin	Harbin	懶蛋
Jiaoliao Mandarin	Yantai (Muping)	懶人, 懶漢, 懶漢子, 懶棒棒子, 懶老婆 female
Central Plains Mandarin	Luoyang	懶蟲
	Wanrong	懶漢, 懶惰坯 female
Southwestern Mandarin	Wuhan	懶溜子
	Liuzhou	懶蛇, 墨蛇
Jianghuai Mandarin	Nanjing	懶坯, 懶蟲
Cantonese	Guangzhou	懶蛇, 蛇王
	Hong Kong	懶蛇, 懶鬼, 懶蟲, 大懶蛇, 懶星
Gan	Nanchang	懶人, 懶鬼
Hakka	Meixian	懶鬼, 懶屍牯, 懶屍嫲 female
Huizhou	Jixi	懶坯, 懶骨
Jin	Taiyuan	懶蛋
Eastern Min	Fuzhou	懶漢, 定蟲
Southern Min	Xiamen	貧惰蟲
	Quanzhou	貧惰蟲
	Zhangzhou	貧惰蟲
	Tainan	貧惰骨 GT, 貧惰蟲 GT
	Manila (Hokkien)	貧惰蟲
	Shantou	惰囝, 惰儂
Southern Pinghua	Nanning (Tingzi)	懶鬼, 懶蟲
Wu	Shanghai	懶惰坯, 懶撲鬼, 懶蟲, 懶人
	Shanghai (Chongming)	懶撲
	Hangzhou	懶惰坯, 懶坯, 懶惰鬼
	Ningbo	懶撲, 懶惰坯
	Wenzhou	懶人, 懶牌人
Xiang	Changsha	懶人子, 河頭魚
	Loudi	懶人子
	Hengyang	懶鬼

Dialectal synonyms of 懶人 (“lazybones; lazy person”) [map]

Verb

蛇王

1. (Cantonese) to slack off at work; to goof off during work

Synonyms

Variety	Location	Words edit
Formal (Written Standard Chinese)		偷懶, 躲懶, 偷閒
Northeastern Mandarin	Beijing	躲懶兒, 偷懶兒, 脫懶兒
	Taiwan	偷懶
	Singapore	偷懶
Lanyin Mandarin	Ürümqi	躲懶
Jianghuai Mandarin	Yangzhou	躲懶, 隑懶
Cantonese	Guangzhou	躲懶, 放蛇, 偷雞
	Hong Kong	偷懶, 蛇王, 吞泡
	Dongguan	偷雞
Gan	Nanchang	偷懶
Hakka	Meixian	偷嫽
	Xingning	偷嫽, 怠懶
	Huizhou (Huicheng; Bendihua)	偷嫽
Jin	Taiyuan	偷懶
Eastern Min	Fuzhou	躲懶
Southern Min	Xiamen	想惰
	Zhangzhou	想惰, 想死
	Penang (Hokkien)	食蛇
	Singapore (Hokkien)	食蛇
Southern Pinghua	Nanning (Tingzi)	偷懶

Dialectal synonyms of 偷懶 (“to slack off; to lie down on the job”) [map]

Adjective

蛇王

1. (Cantonese) lazy