dân chủ

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

• dân-chủ

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 民主, composed of 民 (“people”) and 主 (“lord; master”), from Japanese 民主 (minshu), from Chinese 民主 (mínzhǔ, “republican; republican president”), ultimately from Literary Chinese 民主 (mínzhǔ, “monarch”, literally “lord of the people”). First used in William Alexander Parsons Martin's Chinese translation of Henry Wheaton's Elements of International Law, as the morphological, and innovatively semantic, antonym of Chinese 君主 (jūnzhǔ, “monarchical”) (quân chủ), despite the fact that Literary Chinese 民主 (mínzhǔ) and Literary Chinese 君主 (jūnzhǔ) were synonyms. Later Chinese, Japanese and Korean publications consistently used 民主 (mínzhǔ) for English republic, until it was ultimately settled in the late 20th century that 民主 (mínzhǔ) should be used for English democracy, while 共和 (gònghé) (cộng hoà) for republic. Erroneously interpreted by modern communists as "the people take charge."

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [zən˧˧ t͡ɕu˧˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [jəŋ˧˧ t͡ɕʊw˧˨]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [jəŋ˧˧ cʊw˨˩˦]

Adjective

dân chủ

1. democratic

Noun

dân chủ

1. democracy

   Dân chủ có nghĩa là dân làm chủ.

   Democracy means that it's the people who take charge.