lo bò trắng răng
Appearance
Vietnamese
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Literally, "to worry that a cow's teeth are white".
Most Kinh people in the old days, regardless of status, dyed their teeth black. This idiom implies that a person feels uneasy that their cow's teeth are not dyed, although it is a livestock, not human.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [lɔ˧˧ ʔɓɔ˨˩ t͡ɕaŋ˧˦ zaŋ˧˧]
- (Huế) IPA(key): [lɔ˧˧ ʔɓɔ˦˩ ʈaŋ˦˧˥ ʐaŋ˧˧]
- (Saigon) IPA(key): [lɔ˧˧ ʔɓɔ˨˩ ʈaŋ˦˥ ɹaŋ˧˧]
Verb
[edit]- (idiomatic) to needlessly worry