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bèo. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
bèo, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
bèo in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word
bèo you have here. The definition of the word
bèo will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition of
bèo, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
Tày
Etymology
Borrowed from Vietnamese bèo.
Pronunciation
Noun
bèo
- water cabbage
- Synonym: pjăm
References
- Lương Bèn (2011) Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên
- Léopold Michel Cadière (1910) Dictionnaire Tày-Annamite-Français [Tày-Vietnamese-French Dictionary] (in French), Hanoi: Impressions d'Extrême-Orient
Vietnamese
Etymology
Norman & Mei (1976) proposes a native Austroasiatic origin and compares it to Mon ဗေဝ် (“to ride low in the water”) (< Proto-Mon-Khmer *ber (“to float”)); they also consider Chinese 薸 (OC *bew) to be a loanword from Austroasiatic.
However, Liu (1999) proposes a possible relation of 薸 (OC *bew) to 漂 (OC *pʰew, “to float; to drift”), and Sagart (2008) counts 薸 (OC *bew) among "either East Asian areal words if not Chinese words in disguise"; so the loan direction might have been in reverse, i.e. from Old Chinese.
Pronunciation
Noun
(classifier cây, lá, miếng) bèo • (苹, 䕯, 瓢)
- duckweed
Derived terms
Descendants
Adjective
bèo
- (slang) cheap, low quality
See also