chiêm bao

Vietnamese

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 瞻 (“to gaze; to view”) + bao, from Proto-Vietic *s-poː (“to dream”), from Proto-Mon-Khmer *mp[ɔ]ʔ. Alternatively, along with mồ hôi (“sweat”), mồ côi (“orphaned”) and kì đà (“monitor lizard”), this is one of the few cases where minor syllable was retained, but later came under the influence of a Sino-Vietnamese morpheme.

Cognate with Chut [Rục] cəpoː¹, Chut [Mày] cəmpoː¹, Pacoh mpo, apo, Bahnar apo, Khmu [Cuang] hmpoʔ, Mon လ္ပံ, Sa'och [of Kanchanaburi] pʰoːˀ.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [t͡ɕiəm˧˧ ʔɓaːw˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [t͡ɕiəm˧˧ ʔɓaːw˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [cim˧˧ ʔɓaːw˧˧]

Verb

chiêm bao

1. (literary) to dream

   Synonym: mơ

   • 1820, Nguyễn Du (阮攸), Đoạn trường tân thanh (Truyện Kiều)‎^[1]:

     𱢻兜鄭幅萌萌
     醒𦋦買別浪命占包

     Gió đâu chạnh bức mành mành,
     Tỉnh ra mới biết rằng mình chiêm bao.

     A gust of wind suddenly sent the curtains fluttering,
     Only then did she wake up and realized that she was dreaming.