cứng

From Proto-Vietic *kəŋʔ. Compare Khmer កឹង (kəng) and Pacoh câng. Possibly related to nứng (“horny”), through an infixed form.

Similarities to Chinese 勁 (OC *keŋ-s) (SV: kình, kính), 強 (OC *N-kaŋ, *m-kaŋʔ) (SV: cường, cưỡng), 剛 (OC *kˤaŋ) (SV: cương), 堅 (OC *kˤi[ŋ]) (SV: kiên) are probably coincidental. The Austroasiatic words might also be borrowed from another source that gave rise to one of the Sinitic words.

Also a semantic loan from English hard in hardware and hard copy.

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [kɨŋ˧˦]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kɨŋ˦˧˥]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [kɨŋ˦˥]

• Audio (Saigon):

  (file)

cứng • (亙, 亘, 勁, 徑, 𠡚, 𦚸)

1. hard; firm; rigid

   Synonym: rắn

   Antonym: mềm (“soft”)

2. (of a copy of a document) hard