cổ thụ

See also: cố thủ, cổ thư, and có thừa

Vietnamese

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 古 (“old”) and 樹 (“tree”).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ko˧˩ tʰu˧˨ʔ]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kow˧˨ tʰʊw˨˩ʔ]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [kow˨˩˦ tʰʊw˨˩˨]

Noun

(classifier cây) cổ thụ

1. (literary) an old tree; an ancient tree

Usage notes

• The noun phrase cây cổ thụ is sometimes used as an example of "redundancy" in Vietnamese (native cây and Sino-Vietnamese thụ both mean "tree"), and occasionally chalked up to the ignorance of the average Vietnamese speaker about Sinitic morphemes. Notwithstanding the fact that such "redundancy" was common even when Sinology/Chinese philology was still popular in Vietnam, cây here is functionally not a noun, but a classifier modifying the head noun.