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Vietnamese
Etymology
Calque of Chinese 牛頭馬面 / 牛头马面 (Ngưu Đầu Mã Diện, literally “Bull-Head and Horse-Face”), equivalent to đầu (“head”) + trâu (“water buffalo”) + mặt (“face”) + ngựa (“horse”). Compare Japanese 牛頭馬頭 (Gozu Mezu, Ngưu Đầu Mã Đầu, literally “Bull-Head and Horse-Head”).
Pronunciation
Idiom
đầu trâu mặt ngựa
- (figurative) a thug (a criminal who treats others violently or roughly)