曇花一現

See also: 昙花一现

Chinese

		Dutchman's pipe cactus; queen of the night	one; single; a one; single; a; (before verbs) as soon as, once; (before a noun) entire (family, etc.)	appear; present; now appear; present; now; existing; current
trad. (曇花一現)		曇花	一	現
simp. (昙花一现)		昙花	一	现
Literally: “flower of the cluster fig (Ficus racemosa) only shows itself for a short time”.

Etymology

曇花／昙花 (tánhuā) is short for 優曇婆羅花／优昙婆罗花 (yōutánpóluó huā), a transcription of Sanskrit उडुम्बर (uḍumbara, “cluster fig (Ficus racemosa)”).

Uḍumbara is a sacred tree in Buddhism; its flowers are enclosed within its fruit, and the tree is said to bloom only once every 3000 years, thus it symbolises events of rare occurrence.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): tánhuāyīxiàn

  (Zhuyin): ㄊㄢˊ ㄏㄨㄚ ㄧ ㄒㄧㄢˋ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): taam⁴ faa¹ jat¹ jin⁶

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: tánhuāyīxiàn [Phonetic: tánhuāyíxiàn]
    • Zhuyin: ㄊㄢˊ ㄏㄨㄚ ㄧ ㄒㄧㄢˋ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: tánhuayisiàn
    • Wade–Giles: tʻan²-hua¹-i¹-hsien⁴
    • Yale: tán-hwā-yī-syàn
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: tarnhuaishiann
    • Palladius: таньхуаисянь (tanʹxuaisjanʹ)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /tʰän³⁵ xu̯ä⁵⁵ i⁵⁵⁻³⁵ ɕi̯ɛn⁵¹/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: taam⁴ faa¹ jat¹ jin⁶
    • Yale: tàahm fā yāt yihn
    • Cantonese Pinyin: taam⁴ faa¹ jat⁷ jin⁶
    • Guangdong Romanization: tam⁴ fa¹ yed¹ yin⁶
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /tʰaːm²¹ faː⁵⁵ jɐt̚⁵ jiːn²²/

Idiom

曇花一現

1. like a flash in the pan; ephemeral; short-lived; not long-term