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biết. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
biết, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
biết in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
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Vietnamese
Etymology
Norman and Mei (1976), Schuessler (2007), Sagart (2008): Related to Min Chinese 捌 (bā, “to know”) (proto-Min: *pat). The direction of borrowing is debated; Norman and Mei, and Schuessler favour an Austroasiatic origin for this word, and regard Min as a loan. Sagart, on the other hand, proposes that the sense “to know; to recognise” in both Min and Vietnamese is an extension of the sense “to differentiate; to separate” of 別 (OC *N-pret) (B-S), and hence treats V. biết as a non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 別 (SV: biệt), a semantic development shared with Min.
The word has mostly displaced the use of hay, the more commonly seen word for "to know" in older literature.
Also compare Proto-Bahnaric *băt (“to know”) (Starling).
The Protestant biblical sense is a semantic loan from French connaître.
Pronunciation
Verb
biết • (別)
- to know; to be aware of
1936, Trọng Phụng Vũ, Số đỏ [Dumb Luck]:Cụ Hồng lại nhăn mặt lần thứ mười mà khẽ gắt cũng lần thứ mười rằng:
— Biết rồi ! Biết rồi ! Khổ lắm, nói mãi !- Great-granddad Hồng groans for the 10th time as he grimaces also for the 10th time: "Oh I get it! I get it! Enough with the nagging already!"
- to learn about; to realize
- to know how to; to be able to
- biết đọc ― to be able to read
- biết viết ― to know how to write
- to have a taste for (an acquired taste)
- biết ăn mắm tôm ― to like to eat shrimp paste
- (biblical, Protestantism) to know (have sexual relations with)
Derived terms