สวย

See also: ส่วย

Thai

Pronunciation

Orthographic/Phonemic		สวย s w y
Romanization	Paiboon	sǔai
Romanization	Royal Institute	suai
(standard) IPA^(key)		/sua̯j˩˩˦/^(R)

Etymology 1

Jonsson (1991) suggested it was from Proto-Southwestern Tai *suəjᴬ¹ (“handsome; slender”),^[1] but most of Southwestern Tai languages do not have words for it.

Suthiwan and Tadmor (2009) regards สวย (sǔai) as a loanword from Teochew 媠 (sui², “beautiful”).^[2]

In Southwestern Tai, cognate with Lao ສວຍ (suāi).

Adjective

สวย • (sǔai) (abstract noun ความสวย)

beautiful.
(of rice) perfectly steamed; well steamed.

Synonyms

งดงาม (ngót-ngaam)
งาม (ngaam)
วิจิตร (wí-jìt)
สดสวย
สวยงาม (sǔai-ngaam)

Antonyms

ขี้ริ้ว
ขี้เหร่ (kîi-rèe)
น่าเกลียด (nâa-glìiat)
น่าชัง
อัปลักษณ์ (àp-bpà-lák)

Etymology 2

Corrupted from ซวย (suai).

Verb

สวย • (sǔai)

(colloquial) to undergo something bad, such as to get scolded or punched.

References

^ Jonsson, Nanna L. (1991) Proto Southwestern Tai (Doctoral dissertation), Department of Humanistic Studies, The State University of New York at Albany
^ Suthiwan, Titima; Tadmor, Uri (2009) ”Loanwords in Thai” In Haspelmath, Martin; Tadmor, Uri (eds.) Loanwords in the world’s languages: a comparative handbook Berlin, Boston: Mouton de Gruyter, page 612

[1] Jonsson, Nanna L. (1991) Proto Southwestern Tai (Doctoral dissertation), Department of Humanistic Studies, The State University of New York at Albany

[2] Suthiwan, Titima; Tadmor, Uri (2009) ”Loanwords in Thai” In Haspelmath, Martin; Tadmor, Uri (eds.) Loanwords in the world’s languages: a comparative handbook Berlin, Boston: Mouton de Gruyter, page 612

[1]

[2]