đom đóm

Vietnamese

Etymology

Expressive reduplication of *đóm (“firefly”). Compare bươm bướm (“butterfly”) < bướm, châu chấu (“grasshopper”) < *chấu. Albeit possibly irrelevant, this type of reduplication is similar to the one that informally expresses uncertainty or lessening (e.g. ớn (“sick of”) > ơn ớn (“kinda sick of”)).

Pronunciation

(Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɗɔm˧˧ ʔɗɔm˧˦]
(Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɗɔm˧˧ ʔɗɔm˦˧˥]
(Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [ʔɗɔm˧˧ ʔɗɔm˦˥]

Noun

(classifier con) đom đóm

a firefly

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