One of the most frequently heard Chinese words nowadays in China and among overseas Chinese is NIUBI (pronounced Newbie ), in Chinese 牛逼. This word has become a buzzword for Chinese speakers of all ages. On one occasion, I even heard an old lady say to her grandson, “That TV set is really NIUBI , isn’t it?”
As a word, NIUBI牛逼 is made up of two single Chinese characters—牛Cow and 逼 Vagina ( but do not use the latter separately, for it can be socially offensive), and literally means the cow’s vagina. Apparently, it’s a noun in its origin. It has later evolved into many grammatical categories; it can be an adjective, an adverb, meaning AWESOME, OVERBEARING, FULL OF HOT AIR, etc; and even an exclamation. As an adjective and/or adverb, NIUBI has its comparative and superlative forms, respectively更牛逼 MORE NIUBI and 最牛逼 MOST NIUBI. The pronunciation of the superlative form of NIUBI---最牛逼--- is homophonous with 醉牛逼 that stands for an intoxicated cow’s vagina...
Under certain circumstances, it can also be used as a verb, to BULLSHIT. NIUBI is not just the most frequently used word, but can also be credited with being the most versatile word. I fail to find any other word in my Chinese vocabulary that carries as many connotations. “NIUBI “is absolutely the MOST NIUBI word!
Here are just a few examples of NIUBI in daily usage:
“How is your new boyfriend?” “He’s really NIUBI in bed!”
“How was your bull dick soup 牛鞭湯?” “It was the most NIUBI soup I’ve had!”
“The movie was really NIUBI, the cinema was NIUBI, so was the popcorn!”
“Why the heck are you so NIUBI?!”
“What is Fangfang doing?” “She is NIUBI’ing with her sister.”
Finally, how was your day going? After you’ve read this short piece I’ve just written, I expect you to say out really loud “NIUBI!”
