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Q: Why do people say 'niu' (beef) to say someone is cool/impressive?
14 years 39 weeks ago in Teaching & Learning - China
Apparently it comes from '牛仔' Niúzǎi , which means cowboy in english.
Due to a lot of wild west themed movies of the 60s and 70sand their badass clint eastwood like heroes, the term 牛 became synomynous with cool or impressive ..
My chinese friend told me this.
hahahaha it's actually short for a slang word which means a male bull's reproduce organ . it's probably very impressive (i have never seen one though ) . and some people say the abbreviation in order to avoid the dirty word
I thought it was Niu bi not just Niu! You must have not heard the other part that's why you are so confused. Listen carefully next time!
Some expressions in every language just cannot be translated literally . Why do English speakers use the word "dope" (drug) to express coolness and impression?
