Definify.com

Definition 2024


蛇足

蛇足

Chinese

snake; serpent foot; to be sufficient
simp. and trad.
(蛇足)

Noun

蛇足

  1. (figuratively) something superfluous; unnecessary

Japanese

Kanji in this term

Grade: S
そく
Grade: 1
on'yomi

Etymology

From  () (da, snake) +  (そく) (soku, foot), literally meaning snake's foot (which is useless).

Might be a contraction of  () () (てん) (そく) (gada tensoku), which is from the Chinese idiom 畫蛇添足画蛇添足 (huàshétiānzú).

Pronunciation

Noun

蛇足 (hiragana だそく, romaji dasoku)

  1. something useless; unnecessary; superfluous