tôm tít

Vietnamese

Alternative forms

• tôm tích

Etymology

From tôm (“shrimp, pawn”) +‎ tít (“centipede”).

As tít is a Nghệ An/Hà Tĩnh dialectal term, the phrase "tôm tít" probably originated from that region, then spread to other Central and Southern dialects.

Pronunciation

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

Noun

(classifier con) tôm tít

1. (Central Vietnam, Southern Vietnam) mantis shrimp

Synonyms

• bề bề