tay kiếm

Vietnamese

Etymology

tay ("hand; man") + kiếm ("sword"). Similar to Chinese 手 (shǒu, “hand”), the "tay" pattern is also used on tay súng (“gunner”), tay bắn tỉa (“sniper”) and tay trong (“insider, spy”), referring to a practitioner or an expert of some field.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [taj˧˧ kiəm˧˦]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [taj˧˧ kiəm˦˧˥]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ta(ː)j˧˧ kim˦˥]

Noun

tay kiếm

1. swordsman

Synonyms

• kiếm sĩ