I'm looking at creating a CC-EDICT entry for 话不投机 (huà bù tóu jī). This will need to go through their review process:
All submitted entries will be queued for reviewing by the CC-CEDICT editors team.
(See examples in their Change Log to see the evidence required for "submitted" entries.)
I've never done this before, but I thought I'd give it a try. Here's a start:
Traditional: 話不投機
Simplified: 话不投机
Pinyin: hua4 bu4 tou2 ji1
English: /???/
My best attempt at an English translation is "uncongenial speech", where 不 = "not", 投机 = "congenial", and 话 = "speech".
Question: Does the chengyu 话不投机 mean "uncongenial speech"?
Some online examples (with my partial translations):
想有段亲密恋情,却发现话不投机,好好聊天才是捷径[src]
Want a period of time of intimate romance, but encountered 话不投机, nicely chatting is the only shortcut话不投机比不相爱更可怕[src]
话不投机 is scarier than unrequited love婚姻生活许多话不投机,不愿意曲意逢迎那就掩耳不听[src]
Married life [has] lots of 话不投机, [be] unwilling to bow down to everything [and] refuse to listen
These all seem consistent with 话不投机 = "uncongenial speech". It's surely also related to the CC-CEDIT entry:
话不投机半句多
when words get sour, adding words is useless (idiom)
This translation is in Tales of Herding Gods (牧神记). This is consistent with 话不投机 = "uncongenial speech".
Wayne Cheah's comment let me to this Song Dynasty poem which contains the longer version:
酒逢知己千杯少,话不投机半句多。
CC-EDICT also has an entry for the first part:
酒逢知己千杯少
a thousand cups of wine is not too much when best friends meet (idiom); when you're with close friends, you can let your hair down
Update: What I currently have in mind now (which seems more accurate):
/unagreeable or unenjoyable talk (idiom)/when words go sour/
It looks like it'd be worth updating 话不投机半句多 to:
/when words go sour, adding words is useless (idiom)/fig. in an unagreeable conversation, half a sentence is too much/
Update: It was added/amended here with major changes:
- 話不投機半句多 话不投机半句多 [hua4 bu4 tou2 ji1 ban4 ju4 duo1] /when views are irreconcilable, it's a waste of breath to continue discussion (idiom)/
- 話不投機 话不投机 [hua4 bu4 tou2 ji1] /the conversation is disagreeable (idiom)/