讨价还价
- Literal
- asking a price, returning a price
- Figurative
- To haggle over a price; figuratively, to bargain over terms point by point, sometimes disapprovingly, of someone who haggles over what they should simply accept.
Where does 讨价还价 come from?
It does not come from a particular story; it comes straight from market haggling. 讨价 is the price the seller asks and 还价 the buyer's counteroffer, so the idiom joins both halves of the back-and-forth. Besides the literal sense, still very much alive in markets and shops, it is used figuratively for any negotiation in which each side sets conditions, and often with some disapproval when someone bargains over what they ought to simply accept, such as a duty, a rule, or an order.
How is 讨价还价 used? Two examples
- 让儿子写作业，他还跟我讨价还价，要先玩半小时游戏。
I tell my son to do his homework and he tries to bargain with me, wanting half an hour of games first.
- 两家公司为了合同细节讨价还价了一个多月。
The two companies haggled over the fine print of the contract for more than a month.
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