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They started selling this at the local shop:

enter image description here

(See also TianMao.) I thought this product contained squirrel, so I took a closer look, and it says:

我才不是吃货 只是这个好吃~
Wǒ cái bùshì chīhuò zhǐshì zhège hào chī

I think the squirrel is saying "I'm not edible, just that this is tasty." Dict.cn gives alternative definitions for 吃货, "good-for-nothing" and "buy in", and I don't know if they're relevant here. I'm also confused about the use of 才, which I'm used to meaning "just"/"only", such as in 我昨天才见到他 ("I saw him only yesterday") at dict.cn.

Question: Why does the squirrel say 我才不是吃货?

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4 Answers 4

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才 http://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/characters/529/

[4] certainly; indeed

'货' can be used as a 'derogatory term (貶詞)' for 'person'. (货 = goods = thing) referring a person as a 'thing'.

  • '这货' = '这傢伙'

  • '这(货)沒救了' = This (person) is beyond help

  • 吃货 is a term for 'gluttony' (a person who can really eat alot)

"我才不是吃货" means "I certainly am not a gluttony"

"只是这个好吃" means "But this thing is delicious" (therefore I can't stop eating it)

When we use '才' for 'certainly' the following is always a negative rebuttal

Example:

我才不信 = I certainly don't believe

我才不幹 = I certainly won't do it

我才沒向老師告密 = I certainly did not rat to the teacher

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  • 3
    Note that, as Hao FU alludes to in his answer, the squirrel is actually being called a glutton in the very name of the brand: 吃货松鼠 ‘gluttonous squirrel’, or, as in the brand’s own English name, Chowhound Squirrel. So the brand is called Chowhound Squirrel, and the mascot on the package is then humorously made to be offended by this name, saying, “I am not a chowhound! It’s just that this stuff is so yummy!”.
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Feb 3, 2018 at 19:14
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Yes 吃货 could be used for the meaning of "good-for-nothing" or "buy in (finance)", but

In modern Mandarin, the original meaning of 吃貨／吃货 (chīhuò) as "good-for-nothing" has largely been superseded by the new slang meaning of "foodie".

And note that 货 could also refer to people (well squirrel is not though),

貨

  1. goods; commodities; products
  2. (derogatory) used to refer to a person

And 才 is used for emphasizing the negative connotation,

(11) 才[+不]+动+呢。肯定句少用。如:我才不去呢!

So more precisely, the squirrel is saying "I'm NOT the one (货) who only interested in 吃 (eating), but this is really delicious".

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It usually describes a man sitting around and eat and eat so is “a good-for-nothing man”.

Otherwise, 货 means cargo and 吃 is the abbreviation of 吃进 which means “handle/buy in”.

吃货 actually should be translated as “chowhound/foodie”. And you know, we are happy to admit that we are foodies for Chinese foods. 吃货国 is the self-appointed font of our country. It’s an adorable word.

才 strengthens the (negative/positive) tone here. （我才不是/你才是）

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  • 我(才)不是 = I (certainly) am not; 你才是 = you (actually) are
    – Tang Ho ♦
    Feb 3, 2018 at 6:51
  • 我才不是/你才是 is not a sentence here, just corresponding to negative/positive. But if someone wanted to translate word-to-word, please consults what @TangHo said above.
    – Hao FU
    Feb 3, 2018 at 6:59
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才 here is used to emphasize, and can be interpreted as [indeed or certainly] in English.

吃货 is used to describe a person who can only eat a lot of food, but can't really achieve anything. For example, 你是个吃货 means you are useless (because the only thing you can do is eat). This is an insult if you say it seriously.

However, nowadays 吃货 is frequently used in its funny sense. For example, 吃货们可以来买了！ It will mean people who like food such as 美食家（foodie）now can come to buy it! There is no derogatory sense here, but funny or humorous.

Back to your sentence: 我才不是吃货, 只是这个好吃. It connotes that I am not a fan of food typically, but this one is great! -- Implying I want to eat a lot of it just like a 吃货 usually does to food! It's a way of advertising or hyping to attract customers to buy it.

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  • I think you can directly write “I certainly am not a foodie, but this one is great!”
    – Hao FU
    Feb 3, 2018 at 7:10
  • @HaoFU, Yeah, that kind of idea.
    – dan
    Feb 3, 2018 at 7:11
  • 'foodie' means '美食家' ( someone who care about the quality of the food rather than the quantity) ; 吃货 are not very picky
    – Tang Ho ♦
    Feb 3, 2018 at 9:09
  • @TangHo in mainland, we use 吃货 to describe any kind of person who likes eating, either quantitatively or with high quality. But again that's a funny way to describe that kind of person.
    – dan
    Feb 3, 2018 at 10:14
  • @TangHo 吃货 has lost its meaning as glutton and is commonly used for 美食家 for a long time (5+ years). Like 吃货小分队 means team of foodies, not community of over-eaters.
    – NS.X.
    Feb 3, 2018 at 20:54

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