sian

comparative more sian · superlative most sian · alternative xian

1. SingaporeSinglishcolloquialBored, weary or fed up; tired (of something).

   [Y]ou know you’re not the only one around who is bored and sian and tired of being bored and sian.

   2006 October 3, Serene Luo, The Straits Times, quoted in Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English, Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings Limited, →OCLC, section 3

   1 more example

   “In a country where aspiration drives so much of who we are and what we want, it’s particularly sian to feel stuck,” he suggested.

   2021 May 8, Sophie Chew, “I’m Sian. You’re Sian. We’re All So Damn Sian. But That’s Okay”, in ricemedia.co, archived from the original on 08 May 2021

2. SingaporeSinglishcolloquialRepetitive and boring, wearisome.

   — Sian. Fucking sian. — Complain less. You bite that pencil anymore next time got termites inside you.

   1997, Dave Chua, Gone Case, Ethos Books, →ISBN

1. A female given name from Welsh [in turn from Hebrew].

1. alternativeAlternative form of Siyan.

1. alternativeAlternative form of Xi'an.

   After King Wu of Chou had defeated the Shang, the Chou kings continued to rule from ancestral territory, their capital Hao-ching being situated a short distance south-west of modern Sian.

   1974, William Watson, The Chinese Exhibition, Times Newspapers, →ISBN, page 16

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   As the day drew near it was obvious that it would not bring unmixed joy. Ominous rumors were coming from Sian in the northwest, where Young Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang and his troops were now stationed.

   1938, Robert Berkov, Strong Man of China: The Story of Chiang Kai-shek, Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, page 228

   Chiang refused to see any Communists in Sian until Mme Chiang arrived, according to X. Chou (En-lai) went to Mme Chiang and begged her to arrange an interview with Chiang. She finally agreed. Chou was very apologetic all the time he talked to Chiang.

   1968, Edgar Snow, Random Notes on Red China 1936-1945, 2nd printing, page 2

   On our car journey to the tomb of the First Emperor at Mount Li, some forty kilometres (twenty-five miles) east of Sian, the capital of Shensi province, we passed through Lintong, the administrative centre of an area of intensive agriculture.

   1981, Arthur Cotterell, The First Emperor of China, Holt Rinehart & Winston, page 16

   The Chinese are not hijacking people. So the attempt to take over an airliner flying from Sian to Shanghai and bring it to Taiwan gives indication of the increasing desperation of the mainland people.

   1982 August 1, “Two incidents reveal increasing desperation”, in Free China Weekly, volume XXII, number 30, Taipei, page 1

   As everybody rushed up to shake hands with him it occurred to me that April 24, 1970, the day of the shooting, would be remembered by the free Chinese in the same way an earlier generation of Chinese remembered December 24, 1936—the day the Gimo returned safely from Sian after his horrifying experience at the hands of the erstwhile Young Marshal Chang Hsueh-liang and other commanders who had been unhappy with the Government's continuing military campaigns against Communist remnants in Northwest China.

   1983, James C. H. Shen, “Signs of Change”, in Robert Myers, editor, The U.S. & Free China: How the U.S. Sold Out Its Ally, Washington, D.C.: Acropolis Books Ltd., →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, page 54

1. An endangered language spoken in the Belaga, Sarawak District in east Malaysia. It has no written form.

plural Sians

1. A surname.