thừa

Vietnamese

Pronunciation

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

• Audio (Hà Nội)

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Etymology 1

Sino-Vietnamese word from 剩. The reading fails to retain the final consonant in Middle Chinese 剩 (zying^H), which seems to be unique to Vietnamese (compare Mandarin 剩 (shèng), Cantonese 剩 (sing⁶, zing⁶), Japanese じょう (jō) and Korean 승 (seung)). The one that does, thặng, only occurs in the word thặng dư or colloquial adjective thượng thặng (“first-degree, top-level”). This failure to retain the final consonant also occurs for thừa below.

Haudricourt (1954) suggested that thừa is a non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 餘 (“left over, extra”, SV: dư).

Adjective

thừa

1. more than needed; left over, redundant, superfluous

   Synonym: dư

   Bỏ đồ thừa trong tủ lạnh.

   Put the leftovers in the fridge.

   Mẹ dặn không có thừa đâu !

   Listen to me! This bears repeating!

   (literally, “What mother's advising you is not redundant!”)

Adverb

thừa

1. (only in fixed expressions) more than necessarily said

   thừa biết

   to know fully well; to be fully aware; to be the first one to acknowledge; to know, of all people

Etymology 2

Sino-Vietnamese word from 乘.

Verb

thừa

1. (only in fixed expressions) to take advantage of (an opportunity); to utilise; to avail oneself of

   thừa cơ

   to take one's chance; to take advantage of the current situation

   thừa thế

   to take advantage of the current situation

   thừa thắng

   to victoriously charge onward

Etymology 3

Sino-Vietnamese word from 承

Verb

thừa

1. to inherit; to receive

Derived terms

• giao thừa (交承, “New Year's Eve”)
• thừa hưởng (承享, “to be in possession (of); to inherit”)
• thừa kế (承繼, “to inherit”)
• thừa nhận (承認, “to recognise (faults, etc.); to admit; to acknowledge”)
• Thừa Thiên Huế (“a province of Vietnam”)
• Thừa Thiên (承天, “(history) a feudal province of Vietnam”)

 

Noun

thừa

1. (poetry, comics) shō

See also

• khởi (“ki”)
• chuyển (“ten”)
• kết (“ketsu”)/hợp (“gō”)