thầy
Vietnamese edit
Alternative forms edit
- (Northern Vietnam, obsolete in writing) thày
Etymology edit
Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 師 (SV: sư). Doublet of sư. Feudal Han or Nom teachers were generally male, hence the strictly modern use for male teachers.
The written form thày used to be common in the Northern dialects, now mostly eradicated in writing, although the pronunciation itself likely still remains in less mainstream Northern dialects.
Pronunciation edit
Noun edit
- a male teacher
- Synonym: thầy giáo
- (history, now literary) a teacher
- Muốn sang thì bắc cầu kiều
Muốn con hay chữ thì yêu lấy thầy- Want to cross a river? Build a bridge
Want your children educated? Show their teacher some love
- Want to cross a river? Build a bridge
- (dialectal, Northern Vietnam) a father
- thầy mẹ/u ― parents
- (only in compounds) Buddhist monk; expert
- thầy cãi ― a lawyer
- thầy lang ― a practitioner of East Asian alternative medicine
Derived terms edit
Derived terms
Pronoun edit
thầy
- I/me, your male teacher
- you, my male teacher
- he/him, that male teacher we're talking about
- (dialectal, Northern Vietnam) I/me, your father
- (dialectal, Northern Vietnam) you, my father
- (dialectal, Northern Vietnam) he/him, your/my father