Cho san ba 🔊

Usage examples

• 你这臭三八，给我闭嘴！
  You stinking slut, shut your mouth!
• 她被同事骂了一声臭三八。
  She was called a 'chòu sān bā' by a colleague.
• 臭三八，滚出去！
  Get out of here, you filthy bitch!

Etymology

A compound of 臭 (chòu, "stinking / foul-smelling") and the fixed expression 三八 (sān bā, literally "three-eight"), which became slang for a promiscuous or morally loose woman in early twentieth-century Chinese vernacular. One popular folk etymology links 三八 to 8 March (International Women's Day), used mockingly, though the slang predates that association. The full phrase is used to intensify the insult by adding the qualifier 臭 ("stinking").

Cultural notes

臭三八 (chòu sān bā) is a well-established Mandarin insult used primarily against women, combining a physical disgust marker (臭, "stinking") with a gendered slur (三八). It appears in popular culture, online arguments, and dramatic confrontations in Chinese television. While broadly understood across Mandarin-speaking regions — mainland China, Taiwan, and diaspora communities — it is considered strongly offensive and inappropriate in all formal contexts. The term is gendered and carries sexual-moral condemnation, making it slur-adjacent in addition to being vulgar.

Accuracy

43% of 7 voters say this translation is accurate.