đồng bóng

Vietnamese

Etymology

đồng (“medium”) +‎ bóng (“shamaness, female occultist”); the second element is obsolete and seems to be fossilized in this compound, obsolete compound bóng cốt, and phrasal verb hầu bóng.

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɗəwŋ͡m˨˩ ʔɓawŋ͡m˧˦]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɗəwŋ͡m˦˩ ʔɓawŋ͡m˦˧˥] ~ [ʔɗəwŋ͡m˦˩ ʔɓɔŋ˦˧˥]
(Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʔɗəwŋ͡m˨˩ ʔɓawŋ͡m˦˥]

Noun

đồng bóng

(religion) a spirit medium in Vietnamese folk religion

Adjective

đồng bóng

fickle; capricious; mercurial