僕歐

Chinese

		servant	phonetic
trad. (僕歐)		僕	歐
simp. (仆欧)		仆	欧

Etymology

Phono-semantic matching of English boy, via Shanghainese.

Compare French boy, Vietnamese bồi, Thai บ๋อย (bɔ̌i), Khmer បោយ (baoy), Lao ໂບຍ (bōi) ― various borrowings from the English term, all meaning “(male) servant”.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): pú'ōu

  (Zhuyin): ㄆㄨˊ ㄡ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): buk⁶ au¹
• Wu (Wugniu)
  • (Northern): ⁸boq-eu

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Hanyu Pinyin: pú'ōu
    • Zhuyin: ㄆㄨˊ ㄡ
    • Tongyong Pinyin: pú-ou
    • Wade–Giles: pʻu²-ou¹
    • Yale: pú-ōu
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: pwuou
    • Palladius: пуоу (puou)
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʰu³⁵ ˀoʊ̯⁵⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: buk⁶ au¹
    • Yale: buhk āu
    • Cantonese Pinyin: buk⁹ au¹
    • Guangdong Romanization: bug⁶ eo¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /pʊk̚² ɐu̯⁵⁵/
• Wu
  • (Shanghai):
    • Wugniu: ⁸boq-eu
    • MiniDict: boh^入 eu
    • Wiktionary Romanisation (Shanghai): ⁵boq-eu
    • Sinological IPA (Shanghai): /boʔ¹¹ ɤ²³/

Noun

僕歐

1. (dated) waiter; attendant