lầu

See also: Appendix:Variations of "lau"

Vietnamese

Etymology

Non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 樓 (SV: lâu).

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (Hà Nội)

  (file)

Noun

lầu

1. (historical) a multistory building
   • 1987, Li Bai, “Tại lầu Hoàng Hạc tiễn Mạnh Hạo Nhiên đi Quảng Lăng [At the Yellow Crane Tower, I Saw Meng Haoran Off to Guangling]”, in Ngô Tất Tố, transl., Thơ Đường [Tang Poetry], volume 2, Hanoi: Nhà xuất bản Văn học, translation of 黃鶴樓送孟浩然之廣陵:

     Bạn từ lầu Hạc lên đường,
     Giữa mùa hoa khói, Châu Dương xuôi dòng.
     Bóng buồm đã khuất bầu không,
     Trông theo chỉ thấy dòng sông bên trời.

     My friend set off at the Crane Tower,
     In springtime, sailing for Yangzhou.
     The sail's silhouette faded into the ether,
     As I looked on, I only saw where the river met the sky.

2. (architecture, chiefly Southern Vietnam) a floor (except the ground floor)

   lầu 1 ― the 1st/2nd floor (1 level above the ground story)

   nhà lầu ― a multistory house

   nhảy lầu tự tử ― to jump off a high floor to kill oneself

Usage notes

In southern Vietnamese, the ground floor is called trệt and each floor above it is a lầu numbered from lầu 1. By contrast, in northern and central Vietnamese, floors are called tầng, the ground floor is numbered as tầng 1, and tầng 0 technically refers to a crawl space.

Synonyms

• (a floor (except the ground floor)): tầng (southern Vietnam)

Derived terms

Derived terms

• cao lầu
• lầu bậc
• Lầu Năm Góc (“The Pentagon”)
• lầu son
• lầu trang
• lầu xanh
• nhà lầu

 

Related terms

• tầng