ImpossiblePlane27 t1_ixe78mi wrote on November 22, 2022 at 7:44 PM

Reply to comment by air_nith in [IMAGE] 8 Times Up by kingsadlo

I just checked both works! Having lived in Taiwan for a while I’ve always heard 七上八下 instead of 七上八落 haha. And this idiom actually means to be anxious/overwhelmed by emotions lol

Lomus33 t1_ixeti57 wrote on November 22, 2022 at 10:13 PM

To be overwhelmed by emotions? So its not about getting up after falling as in progress in life?

ImpossiblePlane27 t1_ixeutba wrote on November 22, 2022 at 10:23 PM

No, at least not in the Chinese idiom! And I shall refined it to be more like “overwhelmed by anxious* emotions”. I would use this phrase when something’s making me worry a lot, causing my insides to be uneasy. (I think that’s one of the explanations of the origin of the idiom? Something that makes several of your inner organs go up and others down.)

Lomus33 t1_ixexfnk wrote on November 22, 2022 at 10:42 PM

So "7 times down, 8 times up" means your organs are moving around so much because of anxiety. Thats crazy

ImpossiblePlane27 t1_ixf6djs wrote on November 22, 2022 at 11:50 PM

It’s actually “7 times up, 8 times down” in the Chinese idiom

And the organs thing is my own description lol, here’s a link for dictionary definition: https://en.bab.la/dictionary/chinese-english/七上八下