thầy

See also: thay, thây, thấy, and thẩy

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

(Northern Vietnam, obsolete in writing) thày

Etymology

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 師 (SV: sư). Doublet of sư. Feudal Han or Nom teachers were generally male, hence the strictly modern use for male teachers.

The written form thày used to be common in the Northern dialects, now mostly eradicated in writing, although the pronunciation itself likely still remains in less mainstream Northern dialects.

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [tʰəj˨˩]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [tʰəj˦˩]
(Saigon) IPA^(key): [tʰəj˨˩]
Audio (Hà Nội): (file)

Noun

thầy • (柴, 偨)

a male teacher
Synonym: thầy giáo
(history, now literary) a teacher
Muốn sang thì bắc cầu kiều
Muốn con hay chữ thì yêu lấy thầy
Want to cross a river? Build a bridge
Want your children educated? Show their teacher some love
(dialectal, Northern Vietnam) a father
thầy mẹ/u ― parents
(only in compounds) Buddhist monk; expert
thầy cãi ― a lawyer

thầy lang ― a practitioner of East Asian alternative medicine

Derived terms

Descendants

→ Khmer: ថី (thəy)

Pronoun

thầy

I/me, your male teacher
you, my male teacher
he/him, that male teacher we're talking about
(dialectal, Northern Vietnam) I/me, your father
(dialectal, Northern Vietnam) you, my father
(dialectal, Northern Vietnam) he/him, your/my father