củi

Vietnamese

Etymology

From Proto-Vietic *guːs ~ *kuːs (“fire; firewood”), from Proto-Mon-Khmer *( )ʔus ~ *( )ʔuus ~ *( )ʔuəs (“firewood”). Cognate with Muong cúi (“fire, firewood”), Pacoh uih, Khmer អុស (ʼoh)​.

This is one of three known cases of velar initial in Vietnamese corresponding to zero-initial in other Austroasiatic branches. The other two cases are cứt (“shit”) and the dialectal cảy (“swollen”).

Pronunciation

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

Noun

(classifier cây, khúc, thanh, que) củi • (檜, 桧)

1. firewood

See also

Derived terms

• củi lửa