bọ người thì nhắm, bọ mắm thì chê

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

People criticize others for their own faults

Literally: flea on a person looks, flea on fish sauce scolds

Examples

Anh ấy luôn bọ người thì nhắm, bọ mắm thì chêHe always criticizes others for their own faults

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Discovered via Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “bọ người thì nhắm, bọ mắm thì chê” mean?

People criticize others for their own faults Literally: flea on a person looks, flea on fish sauce scolds

Is “bọ người thì nhắm, bọ mắm thì chê” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.