ngợm

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

  • (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [ŋəːm˧˨ʔ]
  • (Huế) IPA(key): [ŋəːm˨˩ʔ]
  • (Saigon) IPA(key): [ŋəːm˨˩˨]

Etymology 1

Most likely a free noun developed from người ngợm through rebracketing (see below). Various Vietnamese dictionaries try to define this element as if it was a free noun, but inexact semantics and inconsistency between them suggest that this was originally a product of reduplication.

Noun

(classifier con) ngợm

  1. being that looks like a human but lacks basic human decency
    • 2011, Phan Đăng, quoting Lê Thụy Hải, “Lại bàn về ông "vua" sân cỏ”, in Công an nhân dân online‎[1]:
      Vậy chúng tôi không phải là con người, chúng tôi là con ngợm chăng?
      Does that mean we aren't human, that we're brainless brutes or what?
    • 2017, Phan Cuồng, Lý triều dị truyện, →ISBN:
      Nguyên là ngợm Lách Cách vốn có tục thờ thần Xương Cuồng.
      Originally, the Clatter savages had the custom of worshipping the god Xương Cuồng.

Etymology 2

See the etymology of the corresponding lemma form.

Combining form

ngợm • (𤼔)

  1. reduplicant of người, only used in người ngợm
  2. reduplicant of nghịch, only used in nghịch ngợm
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