sao

See also: Appendix:Variations of "sao"

English

Noun

sao (plural saos)

1. Any marine annelid of the genus Hyalinæcia, especially H. tubicola of Europe, which inhabits a transparent movable tube resembling a quill in color and texture.

Part or all of this entry has been imported from the 1913 edition of Webster’s Dictionary, which is now free of copyright and hence in the public domain. The imported definitions may be significantly out of date, and any more recent senses may be completely missing.
(See the entry for “sao”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.)

Anagrams

• AOS, AOs, ASO, Aso, OAS, OSA, SOA

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Japanese

Romanization

sao

1. Rōmaji transcription of さお

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Mandarin

Romanization

sao

1. Nonstandard spelling of sāo.
2. Nonstandard spelling of sǎo.
3. Nonstandard spelling of sào.

Usage notes

• Transcriptions of Mandarin into the Latin script often do not distinguish between the critical tonal differences employed in the Mandarin language, using words such as this one without indication of tone.

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Tagalog

Noun

saó

1. (nautical) mooring cable or chains; cable for mooring ships to the pier when at anchor

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Vietnamese

Pronunciation

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [saːw˧˧]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [ʂaːw˧˧] ~ [saːw˧˧]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [ʂaːw˧˧] ~ [saːw˧˧]

Etymology 1

From Middle Vietnamese ſao.

Adverb

sao • (吵, 牢, 𡫡)

1. why

   Sao nó bảo không đến? ― Why did he say he wouldn’t come?

Derived terms

Derived terms

• làm sao
• tại sao
• vì sao

 

See also

Vietnamese demonstratives
Laurence Thompson (1965), Vietnamese Grammar
					Unspecified					Close to the speaker or newly introduced					Remote, already identified
PLACE đ- (first register)					đâu ‘wherever’					đây ‘here’					đấy ‘there’
REFERENCE n- (second register)					nào ‘whichever’					này ‘this’					nọ ‘that’
PROPORTION b- (first register)					bao ‘to whatever extent’					bây ‘to this extent’					bấy ‘to that extent’
MANNER s- (first register) v- (second register)					sao ‘however’					vầy ‘this way’					vậy ‘that way’
Nguyễn Phú Phong (1992), “Vietnamese Demonstratives Revisited”
				D• (Indefinite)				D1 (Proximal)				D2 (Medial)				D3 (Distal)
+NOM(inal)				đâu place-what				đây place-this				đấy place-that1
±NOM(inal)												đó (place-)that1				kia (place-)that2
–NOM(inal)				nào what				nầy this				nấy/ấy that1				nọ that2

Vietnamese demonstratives (alternative version)

	Proximal (*-iː)	Distal 1 (*-iːʔ)	Distal 2 (*-əːʔ)	Distal 3/ Remote (*-ɔːʔ)	Interrogative (rime was a rounded back vowel)
Place, attributive1 n-	ni nì này	nấy	nớ	nọ	nào
Place, nominal2 đ-	đây	đí đấy	—	đó	đâu
Manner r-	ri rày	—	rứa	—	ru sao3
Extent 14 b-	bây	bấy	—	—	bao
Extent 25 v-	vầy	vậy	—	—	—
1 Originally can only follow a nominal (being used attributively), hence nơi này (“this place; here”), nơi nào (“where”) (no longer completely true in the modern language). 2 Can be used on its own/is itself nominal, hence đây (“here”), đâu (“where”). 3 From earlier *C-raːw (where *C is nonspecific consonant). 4 Placed before the head: bây nhiêu (“this much”), bấy nhiêu (“that much”), bao nhiêu (“how much”). 5 Placed after the head: nhanh vầy (“this fast”), nhanh vậy (“that fast/so fast”).

Adjective

sao

1. problematic, bad

   Có sao lắm không? ― Is it very bad?

   Không sao đâu. ― No problem.

Derived terms

Derived terms

• không sao

 

Etymology 2

From Middle Vietnamese ſao, from Proto-Vietic *k-raːw. Cognate with Muong khao.

It is a semantic loan from English star, in the senses of “celebrity; actor”.

Noun

(classifier vì, ngôi) sao • (𣋀, 𣇟, 𤚧)

1. star (luminous celestial body)
2. asterisk

   toán sao

   an "asterisked" math problem (marked with an asterisk); a difficult math problem

Noun

(classifier ngôi) sao • (𣋀, 𣇟, 𤚧)

1. star (celebrity)
2. star (actor)

Derived terms

• dấu sao (“asterisk”)
• sao mới (“nova”)
• sao siêu mới (“supernova”)

 

See also

• tinh