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Hydrocephalic me
Yes, I've got water on the brain. Yesterday's entry made me curious about other languages' idiomatic compounds with "water" and whether any of them were quite as far afield as Osage's. All of the entries under oka' in my Chickasaw dictionary appeared quite straightforward, but there were a few surprises in Vietnamese.
The basic Vietnamese word for "water" is nước, which some of you might recognise from the name of the most ubiquitous Vietnamese condiment, nước mắm ("water [of] salted.fish", i.e. fish sauce). Nước ngọt or "water sweet" refers--as one might expect--to fresh water; nước đá or "water [of] stone" is ice.
But by some sort of semantic extension that is opaque to me, nước can also refer to moves or plays in certain games, e.g. nước cờ ["water [of] chess"] "chess move", nước bài ["water [of] card"] "play [in a game of card]". Even more curious is its presence in the names of gaits, such as nước đại ["water grand"] "gallop" or nước kiệu ["water trot"] "amble".
By contrast, I think I understand the metaphor behind nước da ["water skin"] "complexion". The term for "coat of paint" is nước sơn "water paint". A coat of paint goes on liquid and leaves a shiny surface. If a person's complexion is conceived of as being like a coating of/on their skin, then it makes perfect sense; if there's some other origin, then I'm stumped.
The basic Vietnamese word for "water" is nước, which some of you might recognise from the name of the most ubiquitous Vietnamese condiment, nước mắm ("water [of] salted.fish", i.e. fish sauce). Nước ngọt or "water sweet" refers--as one might expect--to fresh water; nước đá or "water [of] stone" is ice.
But by some sort of semantic extension that is opaque to me, nước can also refer to moves or plays in certain games, e.g. nước cờ ["water [of] chess"] "chess move", nước bài ["water [of] card"] "play [in a game of card]". Even more curious is its presence in the names of gaits, such as nước đại ["water grand"] "gallop" or nước kiệu ["water trot"] "amble".
By contrast, I think I understand the metaphor behind nước da ["water skin"] "complexion". The term for "coat of paint" is nước sơn "water paint". A coat of paint goes on liquid and leaves a shiny surface. If a person's complexion is conceived of as being like a coating of/on their skin, then it makes perfect sense; if there's some other origin, then I'm stumped.