đầu têu

Vietnamese

Etymology

đầu (“head”) +‎ têu; the second syllable is probably a non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 頭 (SV: đầu), borrowed rather recently from a Sinitic lect. Compare Tōngshān Gan 頭 / 头 (tɛuA2), Méixiàn Hakka 頭 / 头 (tʰeu¹¹).

Pronunciation

  • (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [ʔɗəw˨˩ tew˧˧]
  • (Huế) IPA(key): [ʔɗəw˦˩ tew˧˧]
  • (Saigon) IPA(key): [ʔɗəw˨˩ tew˧˧]

Noun

(classifier kẻ, tên, đứa) đầu têu

  1. (often derogatory) ringleader, boss
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.