bèo

Borrowed from Vietnamese bèo.

• (Thạch An – Tràng Định) IPA^(key): [ɓɛw˧˨]
• (Trùng Khánh) IPA^(key): [ɓɛw˩]

bèo

1. water cabbage

   Synonym: pjăm

• Lương Bèn (2011) Từ điển Tày-Việt [Tay-Vietnamese dictionary]‎^[1][2] (in Vietnamese), Thái Nguyên: Nhà Xuất bản Đại học Thái Nguyên
• Léopold Michel Cadière (1910) Dictionnaire Tày-Annamite-Français [Tày-Vietnamese-French Dictionary]‎^[3] (in French), Hanoi: Impressions d'Extrême-Orient

Norman & Mei (1976) proposes a native Austroasiatic origin and compares it to Mon ဗေဝ် (“to ride low in the water”) (< Proto-Mon-Khmer *ber (“to float”)); they also consider Chinese 薸 (OC *bew) to be a loanword from Austroasiatic.

However, Liu (1999) proposes a possible relation of 薸 (OC *bew) to 漂 (OC *pʰew, “to float; to drift”), and Sagart (2008) counts 薸 (OC *bew) among "either East Asian areal words if not Chinese words in disguise"; so the loan direction might have been in reverse, i.e. from Old Chinese.

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɓɛw˨˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɓɛw˦˩]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʔɓɛw˨˩]

(classifier cây, lá, miếng) bèo • (苹, 䕯, 瓢)

1. duckweed

• → Tày: bèo

bèo

1. (slang) cheap, low quality