yin-yang
English
WOTD – 18 May 2007
![](../I/Yin_and_yang.svg.png.webp)
A yin-yang symbol.
Alternative forms
Etymology
Borrowed from Mandarin 陰陽/阴阳 (yīnyáng), from Middle Chinese 陰陽 (MC 'im yang), from Old Chinese 陰陽 (OC *qrɯm laŋ), from 陰 (“dark” → “negative force”) + 陽 (“bright” → “positive force”).
Pronunciation
- enPR: yĭn yăng, IPA(key): /ˈjɪn ˈjæŋ/
Audio (US) (file) Audio (AU) (file)
Noun
- Yin and yang.
- A circular symbol with white and black sections (☯), representing the fusion of the concepts of yin and yang.
- (colloquial, somewhat vulgar) The vulva or vagina.
- 1996, David Foster Wallace, Infinite Jest […], Boston, Mass., New York, N.Y.: Little, Brown and Company, →ISBN, page 124:
- U.S.S. Millicent asked Mario if he'd ever seen a girl's yin-yang before.
- 2009, Stanley William Rogal, What Passes for Love, page 76:
- "So I took off my apron and told her she could shove the job up her yin-yang."
- (colloquial, somewhat vulgar) The anus or rectum.
- He thought he could smuggle the drugs over the border by putting them in capsules and stuffing them up his yin-yang. Not a good idea!
- 2021 January 19, CBC News, “Saskatchewan will run out of COVID-19 vaccine in the next few days, Moe says”, in Saskatchewan:
- "... I'd be on that phone call every single day. I'd be up that guy's yin-yang so far with a firecracker he wouldn't know what hit him," the Ontario premier said of Pfizer's executives.
Derived terms
- up the yin-yang
- yin-yang fish
Translations
yin and yang
|
vagina — see vagina
anus — see anus
French
Alternative forms
- yin et yang
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ji.njɑ̃ɡ/
Noun
- (Chinese philosophy) yin-yang (opposite principles in Chinese philosophy)
Portuguese
Noun
- (Chinese philosophy) yin-yang (opposite principles in Chinese philosophy)
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