grass mud horse en · NOUN
Etymology
A calque of the Mandarin 草泥馬／草泥马 (cǎonímǎ). See 草泥馬 for more.
Meanings
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One of the ten "mythical Baidu deities" invented by Chinese internet users for the purpose of circumventing censorship. Usually depicted as resembling an alpaca, and is supposedly living in the Mahler Gobi desert.
What began as an entertaining by-product of that internet clean-up has become a sensation. This is because “Grass Mud Horse” in Chinese is a homonym for an unprintable but widely used phrase. Both the phrase – “F*** your mother” – and the name of the mythical animal are pronounced as caonima, although using different tones
2009 March 6, “Chinese fight internet censors with "Grass Mud Horse" cuddly toy”, in Times Online, archived from the original on 29 Apr 2009:A YouTube children’s song about the beast has drawn nearly 1.4 million viewers. A grass-mud horse cartoon has logged a quarter million more views. A nature documentary on its habits attracted 180,000 more.
2009 March 11, Michael Wines, “A Dirty Pun Tweaks China’s Online Censors”, in The New York Times, New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 11 Jul 2011:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| Grass Mud Horse | alternative | lexicographic | |
| grass-mud horse | alternative | lexicographic | |
| grass mud horses | Number=Plur | lexicographic |
Translations (13)
it cavallo del erba-fango (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship) · ja 草泥馬 (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship) · vi ngựa cỏ bùn (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship) · bg кон от глина и трева (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship) · cmn 草泥馬 /草泥马 (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship) · pl koń trawiasto-błotny (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship) · de Gras-Schlamm-Pferd (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship) · ms kuda lumpur rumput (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship) · nl grasmodderpaard (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship) · yue 草泥馬 /草泥马 (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship) · ru лоша́дка травяно́й грязи (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship) · fr cheval de l'herbe et de la boue (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship) · es caballo de pasto-barro (Mythical Baidu deity used for circumventing censorship)