gòn

Vietnamese

Etymology

Unclear. The word is not Sino-Vietnamese and ⟨g/gh⟩ is also not a possible initial in Sino-Vietnamese proper, therefore the word might be either native, a vernacular Sinitic loan (either from a regional Sinitic language or is an early, pre-Middle Chinese loan), or a loan from another neighboring language. The Nôm character 棍, as with many other cases, is merely a character formed by phono-semantic matching.

The word might (but unlikely) be the second element in the placename Sài Gòn.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ɣɔn˨˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ɣɔŋ˦˩]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [ɣɔŋ˨˩]

Noun

(classifier cây, bông) gòn • (棍)

1. ceiba

   Synonym: bông gòn

2. (by extension) cotton pad