ở giá

Vietnamese

Etymology

ở (“to stay”) +‎ vá (“widowed, forlorn”). The second element might be the same as vá (“to mend, to patch”), derived from "patchy" > "incomplete, one of a pair" (Đại Nam quấc âm tự vị (1895) lists examples such as con ong vá (“a wasp/bee that already used up its venom”), chào vá (“to raise one hand to salute”)), or might be a variant of goá (“widowed”).

The current unetymological spelling is due to the ⟨d⟩-⟨gi⟩-⟨v⟩ merger in Southern dialects.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔəː˧˩ zaː˧˦]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔəː˧˨ jaː˨˩˦]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʔəː˨˩˦ jaː˦˥]

Verb

ở vá

1. to voluntarily remain unmarried