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
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