柠檬精

What does 柠檬精 mean?

Chinese has called jealousy 酸, sour, for decades, and 柠檬精 turns that feeling into a creature: someone whose envy of another person's romance, grades, holiday or looks keeps coming out as sour remarks. The 🍋 emoji does half the work. It can sting, as in 别当柠檬精了 (stop being such a lemon spirit), but the more common use these days is self-mocking: fans who see their idol photographed with someone else confess 我酸了, I've gone sour, and attach a lemon. Compared with 杠精, it is gentler, because a lemon spirit admits the envy instead of dressing it up as an argument.

Where does 柠檬精 come from?

The label spread through fan and gaming communities in early 2019, as the old word 酸 hardened into a mascot, and 我酸了 travelled with it. In December, 《咬文嚼字》 placed 柠檬精 on its annual top-ten list of Chinese buzzwords, next to 996 and 我太难/南了, which sealed it as one of the words of the year.

How to use 柠檬精

• 室友抽到演唱会门票，我在评论区打下四个字：我酸了，柠檬精上线。
  Shìyǒu chōu dào yǎnchànghuì ménpiào, wǒ zài pínglùn qū dǎ xià sì gè zì: wǒ suān le, níngméngjīng shàngxiàn.
  My roommate won concert tickets, so I typed one line under the post: I've gone sour, lemon spirit reporting in.
• 他天天在朋友圈晒女朋友做的饭，柠檬精们只能默默点赞。
  Tā tiāntiān zài péngyǒu quān shài nǚpéngyou zuò de fàn, níngméngjīng men zhǐ néng mòmò diǎn zàn.
  He posts his girlfriend's home cooking every single day, and all the lemon spirits can do is quietly hit like.