7 snake idioms to ring in the Year of the Snake, including one about being two-faced
Why would legs on a snake mean something is ruined? What does a bow’s shadow have to do with reptiles? Seven snake idioms and their meanings
In the Chinese language, animals are often used to help explain ideas. The snake is among the ones more commonly featured in idioms.
Before the Year of the Snake dawns, we look at some of the most common Chinese expressions that feature the reptiles and what they mean.
畫蛇添足: draw legs on a snake
The first written documentation of this idiom dates back to some time between the fifth and third centuries BC, in the ancient Chinese text Zhan Guo Ce, otherwise known as the “Strategies of the Warring States”.
Directly translating to “draw snake, add leg”, it has a similar meaning to the English idiom “gild the lily”: to decorate or improve something that is already finished or perfect and therefore ruin it.
Motto: Drawing legs on a snake is unnecessary. Snakes do not have legs. (Those are called “lizards”.)
