- English translation
Like household eunuchs delighting in their masters' children as if they were their own.
- Literal wording
Like the aghas, they rejoice in their masters' children.
- Meaning and lesson
The saying mocks a person who swells with pride over something that belongs entirely to someone else. Its image is of historical household eunuch servants, here called aghas, who had no children and celebrated their masters' offspring as if those children reflected glory on them.
More broadly, it targets borrowed vanity: showing off status, achievements, or possessions in which one has no genuine part. The joy may be sincere, but the boasting is hollow, because the thing celebrated was never the boaster's to claim.
- When it is used
Use it as a mocking jab at someone bragging about a relative's, employer's, or patron's success or children as if the credit were his own. Aim it at the boaster, not the family, and use care: its image of household eunuchs can read as demeaning today.
- Register
- colloquial
Cite or copy proverb
How this record reached us: Editorially sourced.
Report an issue with this meaning: Like household eunuchs delighting in their masters' children as if they were their own.