甘井先ず竭く

Japanese
Kanji in this term
甘 井 先 竭
かん
Grade: S		 せい
Grade: 4		 ま
Grade: 1		 つ
Hyōgaiji

Etymology

Calque of Literary Chinese 甘井先竭 (gānjǐngxiānjié), from 莊子/山木. Literally "a sweet well is the first to be exhausted", because the sweet well has many users.[1]

Proverb

甘(かん)井(せい)先(ま)ず竭(つ)く • (kansei mazu tsuku) 

  1. highly-skilled men are the first to be exhausted

References
  1. Matsumura, Akira (1995) 大辞泉 [Daijisen] (in Japanese), First edition, Tōkyō: Shogakukan, →ISBN
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