bì bạch

Vietnamese

Etymology

Augmented from bạch (“with a thud”). Compare bì bịch, bì bõm, bì bọp.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɓi˨˩ ʔɓajk̟̚˧˨ʔ]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɓɪj˦˩ ʔɓat̚˨˩ʔ]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [ʔɓɪj˨˩ ʔɓat̚˨˩˨]

Adjective

bì bạch

1. (onomatopoeia) with a smacking or flapping sound

Usage notes

A pun associates this native word with the homophonic Sino-Vietnamese word of 皮白 (bì bạch, literally “skin + white”), leading to the expression:

da trắng vỗ bì bạch (literally “white skin slapped like bì bạch [white-skin]”),

often paired with similar-structured expressions such as:

rừng sâu mưa lâm thâm (literally “deep forest rains like lâm thâm [deep-forest]”),

trời xanh màu thanh thiên (literally “blue sky like thanh thiên [blue-sky]”)

to form an antithetical couplet. Compare cô miên.