chưng

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [t͡ɕɨŋ˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [t͡ɕɨŋ˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [cɨŋ˧˧]

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 張 (“to set out, to display”, SV: trương). Doublet of trưng and trương.

chưng

1. to show off, to sport

Sino-Vietnamese word from 蒸 (“steam”).

chưng

1. to distill

• chưng cất

In pre-modern writing of a more colloquial nature and original works, chưng was used as a preposition to indicate place and time. However, this particle/preposition was also a literary device widely used in translation of Chinese texts, as a "stand-in" of sort for the Chinese markers 之 (zhī) and 夫. See Washizawa (2017) for more information.

chưng

1. (obsolete) in; on; at
2. (obsolete) due to; because

In the spoken/colloquial form of pre-modern Vietnamese, at least the compound vì chưng (“because of”) used to enjoy some popular usage, although the presence of chưng as a stand-alone word is much less widespread than in the various giải âm (解音) and giải nghĩa (解義) texts. Note the position of Chinese 之 and Vietnamese chưng in relative to 災／灾 (zāi, “disaster”) and "boiling water and fire" in the example below.

13th century (original Chinese), original by Trần Thái Tông, Khoá hư lục 課虛錄:

活(hoạt)遭(tao)湯(thang)火(hoả)之(chi)災(tai)

[If one is] to live [again], [they] would be subjected to boiling water and fire.

14th century (giải âm/giải nghĩa), giải nghĩa by Tuệ Tĩnh, Thiền tông khoá hư ngữ lục 禪宗課虛語錄:

群(còn)𤯩(sống)吏(lại)及(gặp)蒸(chưng)災(tai)渃(nước)燶(nóng)共(cùng)焒(lửa)催(thui)

Even [if] one is to be resurrected, [they] would be greeted with boiling water and scorching fire.