sài

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Mandarin

Romanization

sài (sai4, Zhuyin ㄙㄞˋ)

  1. Hanyu Pinyin reading of
  2. Hanyu Pinyin reading of
  3. Hanyu Pinyin reading of
  4. Hanyu Pinyin reading of
  5. Hanyu Pinyin reading of
  6. Hanyu Pinyin reading of  /

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

Etymology 1

Sino-Vietnamese word from .

Noun

sài

  1. (obsolete) firewood, brushwood
    • 8th century, Wang Wei, Võng Xuyên nhàn cư tặng Bùi tú tài Địch - Nhàn cư ở Võng Xuyên tặng tú tài Bùi Địch (Wheel-Rim River, Dwelling in idleness: for P’ei Ti); 1995 VIetnamese translation by Trần Trọng Kim; 2006 English translation by David Hinton
      Cửa sài chống gậy đứng ngoài,
      Buổi chiều hứng gió nghe hoài tiếng ve.
      I lean on a cane outside my brushwood gate,
      look out into wind, listen to late-day cicadas.
    1820, Nguyễn Du (阮攸), Truyện Kiều (傳翹) [The Tale of Kieu], Liễu Văn Ðường edition, published 1866, lines 529-530:
    󰘇皮吘杄花
    家童𠓨𠳚書茹買𢀨
    Cửa sài vừa ngỏ then hoa,
    Gia đồng vào gởi thư nhà mới sang.
    No sooner had he drawn the flowery bolt out of the brushwood gate than a young servant appeared and handed him a letter from home.

Etymology 2

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Noun

sài

  1. (bệnh ~) children's lasting and serious disease
    • 1960, Nguyễn Khải, “Mùa lạc [Peanut Season]”, in Mùa lạc:
      Lấy chồng từ năm mười bảy tuổi, nhưng chồng cờ bạc, nợ nần nhiều bỏ đi Nam, đến đầu năm 1950 mới trở về quê. Ăn ở lại với nhau được đứa con trai lên hai thì chồng chết. Cách mấy tháng sau đứa con lên sài bỏ đi để chị ở một mình.
      She married at seventeen, yet her husband gambled, became heavily indebted, and fled to the South; he only returned to their hometown when 1950 began. They lived together and begat a son, who turned two years old when her husband died. A few months later, her son passed away from a childhood disease, leaving her alone.

Further reading

  • “Bệnh sài”, in Sức khoẻ toàn dân (in Vietnamese), 2018 December 28, archived from the original on 26 September 2022

Etymology 3

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

sài

  1. (Southern Vietnam, colloquial) to use; to spend
    Synonyms: dùng, tiêu, xài