đầu

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See also: Appendix:Variations of "dau"

Vietnamese

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 頭.

Displaced inherited Vietic word trốc in most major dialects.

Pronunciation

Noun

(classifier cái) đầu

  1. (anatomy) a head
    Synonym: trốc
  2. (of an object) an end or extremity; compare mũi (“tip”)
    hai đầu cầu ― the two ends of the bridge
    • (Can we date this quote?), Hoàng Hiệp (lyrics and music), “Trường Sơn Đông, Trường Sơn Tây [East Trường Sơn and West Trường Sơn]”:
      Cùng mắc võng trên rừng Trường Sơn,
      Hai đứa ở hai đầu xa thẳm.
      Đường ra trận mùa này đẹp lắm !
      Trường Sơn Đông nhớ Trường Sơn Tây.
      Hanging our hammocks in the woods of Trường Sơn
      Both of us are, at the farthest ends.
      The roads to the battlefield look so nice this season!
      Here I am in East Trường Sơn missing you in West Trường Sơn.

Adjective

đầu

  1. first
    ngày đầu ― the first day

Affix

đầu

  1. (of a period of time, an event, a story, a piece of writing, etc.) the beginning
    mở đầu câu chuyện ― to preface or start this story
    bắt đầu cuộc họp ― to start this meeting
  2. a physical media player
    đầu đĩa ― a disc player
    đầu băng ― a VHS player

Usage notes

  • Similar to con mắt mày (literally “an eye of yours”), the phrase cái đầu mày (literally “a head of yours”) is used as a mild insult to call out someone's nonsense, like bullcrap or bollocks are in English. Replace mày with your second-person pronoun or kinship term of choice if it sounds too rough for you.

See also

Derived terms
Wikious
Boobota
Sagapedia