hành

Hello, you have come here looking for the meaning of the word hành. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word hành, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say hành in singular and plural. Everything you need to know about the word hành you have here. The definition of the word hành will help you to be more precise and correct when speaking or writing your texts. Knowing the definition ofhành, as well as those of other words, enriches your vocabulary and provides you with more and better linguistic resources.
See also: hạnh

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Noun

(classifier cây, củ) hành (, )

  1. green onion
    Synonyms: hành lá, hành ta
  2. shallot
    Synonyms: hành củ, hành ta, hành tía, hành tím, hẹ tây
  3. Short for hành tây (onion, literally western onion).
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Shortened from hành hạ.

Coinage most likely facilitated by the homophony of the unrelated noun above, leading to further coinage of phrases like bán hành (to torment physically/to sell scallion) and bón hành (to give a one-sided beating/to spoon-feed scallion).

Verb

hành

  1. (humorous) Short for hành hạ.

Noun

hành

  1. (often humorous) torment; physical abuse
    Phim tới đâu rồi?
    Nhân vật chính đang bị phản diện bán hành.
    How is the movie going right now?
    Yeah, the protagonist is getting the shit beaten out of him by the villain.

Etymology 3

Sino-Vietnamese word from (to go; to work). Normally a bound morpheme, but became somewhat free due to expressions such as học hành, which may be expanded to học đi đôi với hành. học hành normally means "studies" but can be used as a rhetorical device to mean "theory and praxis".

Noun

hành

  1. (rhetorically accompanying học) Synonym of thực hành (praxis; practice)
    Học (phải) đi đôi với hành.
    Theory goes hand in hand with practice.
    Học mà không có hành thì chẳng nên cơm cháo gì cả.
    Theory without praxis is meaningless.