quân vô hí ngôn

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

• quân bất hí ngôn

Etymology

Sino-Vietnamese word from 君 (“monarch”), 無 (“not”) and 戲言 (“to joke, to jest, to say something playfully and not in earnest”).

Based on a quote in Lüshi Chunqiu (translation adapted from Knoblock & Riegel 2001):

• 天子無戲言。天子言，則史書之，工誦之，士稱之。 [Vietnamese Literary Sinitic, trad.]

  From: Lü Buwei, Master Lü's Spring and Autumn Annals, 239 BCE

  Thiên tử vô hí ngôn. Thiên tử ngôn, tắc sử thư chi, công tụng chi, sĩ xưng chi. [Sino-Vietnamese]

  The Son of Heaven utters no playful words. What the Son of Heaven says, the scribes record, the musicians chant, and the knights proclaim.

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [kwən˧˧ vo˧˧ hi˧˦ ŋon˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kwəŋ˧˧ vow˧˧ hɪj˨˩˦ ŋoŋ˧˧]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [wəŋ˧˧ vow˧˧ hɪj˦˥ ŋoŋ˧˧] ~ [wəŋ˧˧ jow˧˧ hɪj˦˥ ŋoŋ˧˧]

Idiom

quân vô hí ngôn

1. A monarch should not say anything in jest
2. (by extension) A person in power should not say anything in jest and not in earnest
   • 2018, Linh Oanh, "Nước cờ nguy hiểm (The Dangerous Chess Move)", Báo Quân đội nhân dân (People's Army Newspaper)

     Dù vậy, "quân vô hí ngôn", dẫu nhiều khả năng chỉ là một đòn gió, thì "nước cờ" của Tổng thống D. Trump cũng tiềm ẩn nhiều rủi ro.

     Even so, "a monarch / a person in power should not say anything in jest", though in most likelihoods it has been just a feint attack, President D. Trump's "chess move" also has many potential risks.