I’m particularly fond of affix characters in Chinese, and what more vibrant an example than 鬼 guǐ (“ghost; devil”)?
- 魔鬼 móguǐ (“evil devil”) – demon
- 懒鬼 lǎnguǐ (“lazy devil”) – lazybones
- 酒鬼 jiǔguǐ (“alcohol ghost”) – alcoholic; drunkard
- 醉鬼 zuìguǐ (“drunk devil”) – drunkard
- 烟鬼 yānguǐ (“smoke devil”) – opium addict; chain smoker
- 调皮鬼 tiáopíguǐ (“naughty devil”) – naughty child
- 捣蛋鬼 dǎodànguǐ (“make-trouble devil”) – same as #6
- 吸血鬼 xīxuèguǐ (“suck-blood devil”) – vampire
- 鬼佬 guǐlǎo (“devil old-guy”) – foreigner (usually derogatory)
- 胆小鬼 dǎnxiǎoguǐ (“small-gut devil”) – coward; chicken
- 二鬼子 èrguǐzi (“two-ghost-thing”) – a “banana” – someone yellow (Asian) on the outside but white (Caucasian) on the inside (derogatory)*
- 短命鬼 duǎnmìngguǐ (“short-life devil”) – someone who dies at a young age
- 赌鬼 dǔguǐ (“gambling ghost”) – gambling addict
- 饿鬼 èguǐ (“hungry ghost”) – someone who is always hungry; someone with a big appetite
- 机灵鬼 jīlingguǐ (“clever ghost”) – clever person
- 胡涂鬼 hútuguǐ (“confused ghost”) – someone who often seems confused and/or stupid
- 色鬼 sèguǐ (“lust ghost”) – lecher; person who engages in sexual excess (no exact word for this in English perhaps?)
- 厉鬼 lìguǐ (“terrible ghost”) – evil spirit
- 馋鬼 chánguǐ (“gluttonous ghost”) – pig (someone who eats too much)
- 催命鬼 cuīmìngguǐ (“prodding ghost”) – someone who keeps pushing people to do things; a nagger
- 死鬼 sǐguǐ (“dead ghost”) – a negative but playful term used between spouses
- 鬼子 guǐzi (“devil-thing”) – foreign devil (derogatory)
- 鬼怪 guǐguài (“ghost-monster”) – ghosts and monsters
- 见鬼 jiànguǐ (“see ghost”) – go to Hell!
- 鬼知道 guǐ zhīdào (“ghost knows”) – Heaven knows!
* Wenlin also lists “Chinese who collaborated with the Japanese” but I can’t confirm this.
Have I missed any common ones?
Yes, the 汉语大辞典 also says 【二鬼子】抗日战争时期人民群众对汉奸伪军的蔑称。(Compounds, but not single characters from the dictionary, are accessible at http://cd.kdd.cc/ online, but only using IExplorer, and it will open an annoying pop-up window.)
I’ve only heard 鬼子 as 洋鬼子 (referring to people of European ancestry, and even then half-jokingly) and 日本鬼子. There’s also 假洋鬼子, for people who slavishly imitate foreigners.
鬼佬 is arguably Cantonese, like 鬼婆, 鬼仔, and 鬼妹. I’m not sure about 鬼 preceded by 黑. I seem to remember someone saying these didn’t have such a negative connotation in Cantonese.
死鬼 can be used playfully, but also angrily.
洋鬼子
Great post Carl! This time I actually reposted it… something went wrong last time.
yeah, I think most people would associate 鬼子 with the Japanese.
and 搞鬼 for good measure
#17 – “sex addict”?
The more common usage of 餓鬼 is as an actual ghost:
http://zh.wikipedia.org/zh-tw/%E9%A4%93%E9%AC%BC
見鬼 is usually an exclamation when something strange happens. 比喻離奇古怪。如：「好端端的人會突然不見，真是見鬼了。」
Another common one: 小鬼–kids
Just discovered 黑鬼 today, apparently the Chinese “version” of nigger.
鬼仔 is the Cantonese version of a young male 鬼老. 鬼妹 is the version for a young girl
你好 你中文很棒啊：）
Well, 见鬼 here is more commonly used as some kind of interjection, like “Oops!”, “Crap!”, “Holy!” because people use it when something unexpected (usually not in a good way) or weird happens
Eg:1. 见鬼！我的钱包丢了！
2.我怎么会遇见他？！真是见鬼了！
小气鬼 cheapskate
活鬼 literarly living ghost, I heard this used once to mean something like low life type person
色鬼 pervert perhaps? （好色 perverted）
见鬼 WTF