http://www.chinese-tools.com/chinese/slang/?abc=A

Just found this interesting resource.

In the Facebook Mandarin group we were talking about the history of : Over time "东西 (dōngxi)" became a commonly used word, meaning "goods/merchandise." Today, when people are talking about going shopping, they will say "买东西 (mǎi dōngxi) to buy goods."

And someone who doesnt know much Chinese or Pinyin but has an adopted daughter from China wrote:

For food it goes with little (idiar? ydiar? I don't know the pinyin) but "little thing" is kind of how you say some or something. ---- This discussion originally grew out of a Rosetta Stone Mandarin picture of a dog eathing out of a bowl and the pinyin says - 这只狗在吃东西。
zhè zhī gǒu zài chī dōng xi.

And there was NO WAY IN THE WORLD that anyone would ever figure out from the photo or the context what in the world dōng xi - which is one reason I think Rosetta Stone is WRONG to refuse to give translations or explanation and only provides a PROTECTED PDF of the Chinese and the pinyin.

I would love to know the etymology of 出洋相 (i.e. did it start as a slur against foreigners?).

Also, I learned recently that 野战 has a different meaning from the one you will find in the dictionary (I learned it from a mainland Cantonese speaker though so it's possible that it's only known in 广州). Don't think I can write it here since it's pretty rude, but maybe you can work it out though.

Antimacassar - I was intrigued by your post and spent several pleasant hours searching around mostly regarding 野战 which seems to mean military field operation and has a character which means rude, wild.... I stumbled across various links which describe in great detail how to curse and be obscene in Chinese. I blogged a few of the more tasteful ones in my Facebook Group for Mandarin which so far has only one member who is interested because she adopted an older child from China. You may always email me the explicit meanings williambuell at gmail dot com.

I need to search more on 出洋相

What I discover in general whenever I find pages on old proverb sayings or colloquialisms is that Chinese can be SO oblique and indirect. Perhaps thousands of years of that tradition has led to a more subtle frame of mind.

One amusing find as I searched profanity is: 巨无霸 - which is the word for big mac hamburger, but slang for huge breasts.