cây

See also: cay, CAY, cáy, cấy, čay, çay, and çaý

Vietnamese

Alternative forms
  • (North Central Vietnam) cân
  • (North Central Vietnam) cơn

Etymology

From Proto-Vietic *gəl ~ *kəl. Cognate with Central Vietnamese cân, Muong câl, cấl, Kha Phong kɨl². Related to cấy.

Various words with similar shape that have the meaning of "to fell trees" occur in many Austroasiatic branches, including Semai kòl, Temiar kel, Proto-Bahnaric *kal (whence Koho köl) and Proto-Katuic *kəl (whence Pacoh câl); all could be contributed to *kuəl ~ *kəl (“to cut down, fell”), which might be related to the root above. Alternatively, compare Proto-Khmuic *tŋkəl (“stump”) (whence Khmu [Cuang] tŋkɨl), Khmer គល់ (kŭəl), Mon ဓဂဵု.

Pronunciation
  • (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [kəj˧˧]
  • (Huế) IPA(key): [kəj˧˧]
  • (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA(key): [kəj˧˧]
  • Audio (Ho Chi Minh City)(file)

Noun

(classifier cái) cây • (核,荄,𣘃)

  1. a plant with a hard trunk or stem, such as a woody tree or bamboo, as opposed to cỏ (“(soft-stemmed) grass”)
  2. (by extension) a plant (including trees and grasses), or more rarely, a mushroom
  3. (colloquial) Short for cây số (“kilometre/kimometer”).
    Nhà tui cách Sài Gòn cỡ năm chục cây.
    My house is about fifty kilometres from Sài Gòn.

See also
Derived terms

Classifier

cây • (核,荄,𣘃)

  1. Indicates plants
  2. Indicates stick/rod-like objects
    Synonym: thanh
  3. (music) Indicates string instruments and some other types of musical instruments
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.