หนังหน้าไฟ

Thai

Thai shadow play

Etymology

From หนัง (nǎng, “leather”) +‎ หน้า (nâa, “before; in front of”) +‎ ไฟ (fai, “fire; light”); perhaps derived from the Thai shadow play which uses leather puppets.

Pronunciation

Orthographic		หนังหน้าไฟ h n ạ ŋ h n ˆ ā ai f
Phonemic		หฺนัง-น่า-ไฟ h ̥ n ạ ŋ – n ˋ ā – ai f
Romanization	Paiboon	nǎng-nâa-fai
	Royal Institute	nang-na-fai
(standard) IPA(key)		/naŋ˩˩˦.naː˥˩.faj˧/(R)

Noun

หนังหน้าไฟ • (nǎng-nâa-fai)

1. (idiomatic) person who has to bear or confront the blame, criticism, etc, before the actual culprit, like a puppet in the shadow play which receives the heat from the light source before the puppeteer.