đom đóm

Vietnamese

Etymology

Expressive reduplication of *đóm (“firefly”). Compare bươm bướm (“butterfly”) < bướm, châu chấu (“grasshopper”) < *chấu. Albeit possibly irrelevant, this type of reduplication is similar to the one that informally expresses uncertainty or lessening (e.g. ớn (“sick of”) > ơn ớn (“kinda sick of”)).

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [ʔɗɔm˧˧ ʔɗɔm˧˦]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʔɗɔm˧˧ ʔɗɔm˦˧˥]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʔɗɔm˧˧ ʔɗɔm˦˥]

Noun

(classifier con) đom đóm

1. a firefly