khều

Vietnamese

Etymology

Likely non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 撬 (“to pry open”, SV: khiêu), the tonal register mismatch is sporadically seen yet still unexplained (compare nativized được vs. SV reading đắc, both from 得 (dé), etc.).

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [xew˨˩]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [kʰew˦˩] ~ [xew˦˩]
(Saigon) IPA^(key): [kʰew˨˩] ~ [xew˨˩]

Verb

khều • (挑)

to use hand or other tools to pull something toward oneself

Derived terms

khều móc