Vietnamese edit

Etymology edit

đầu (head) +‎ gối (knee), perhaps to avoid ambiguity with the other gối (pillow), but also probably to refer specifically to the "head" of the knee, the kneecap (compare English olecranon (literally head of the elbow)). Sino-Vietnamese đầu largely displaced native trốc, as in trốc gối.

For some semantic parallels, compare Thai หัวเข่า (hǔua-kào), Zhuang gyaeujhoq, Chinese 膝頭膝头 (tất đầu), Japanese 膝頭 (hizagashira), Ainu コッカサパ (kokkasapa), Malay lutut, Basque belaunburu, Welsh pen-lin, Yoruba orunkun.

Pronunciation edit

Noun edit

đầu gối

  1. knee (joint in the middle of the leg and area around it)
    Synonym: gối