说文解字PopChinese（二）

草(Cǎo)泥(Ní)马(Mǎ)，literally means
Grass     Mud   Horse

ok, first thing you should know about this phrase is, it is NOT a good word!

as if you ever learnt any Chinese, you would know that we use pinyin with 4 tones in this language.
and if you ever tried with pinyin input method, you might find that with the same input of alphabet, you can get over ten different results sometimes.
Because of the internet censorship in China, users of the internet are not allowed to use so-called 敏感词(sensitive words) such as 操, 靠, (yes, we have loads of different forms saying Fuxk in Chinese!)etc.
草泥马 actually stands for fxxk ur mum，a common way of jinx someone you hate.

BUT, notice here, somehow, some people named one kind of alpaca as the image of 草泥马 and called it the head of the 10 mythical animals. it then became very popular with the look of dumb-ass face, or 囧 face.

   How can a bad cursing word becoming a popular cute animal? i do not understand....o(╯□╰)o