“Eat” is synonymous with “drink”

The player suggested the word “drink,” but all three of the show's advisors shook their heads in unison, “No.”

In fact, the advisory board was wrong in not accepting the player's suggestion that the word "drink" was synonymous with "eat."

Dai Nam Quoc Am Tu Vi and Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoang Phe - Vietlex) have collected the word "eat" as synonymous with "suck". Quoted respectively: "eat tobacco: smoke regular cigarettes, or smoke opium. Spoken: people who eat tobacco, are understood to be people who smoke opium"; "eat 2: chew betel or smoke. eat a piece of betel ~ light a match to eat tobacco".

However, the word “eat” (dialect, such as Thanh Hoa ), in addition to being synonymous with “smoke”, is also used as “drink”. In some areas of Thanh Hoa (such as Quang Xuong, old Tinh Gia), people still say “eat a sip of water” instead of “drink a sip of water” (Wait until I have a sip of water before I go); “eat medicine” instead of “drink medicine” (I have taken several stomach ache pills but I still don’t feel satisfied); “eat a pipe of tobacco” instead of “smoke a pipe of tobacco” (e.g. Try one and see if it tastes good).

Reference: Interestingly, in Thanh Hoa, there is also the word "tieu" which is synonymous with "eat" and "drink", such as "tieu thuoc" which means "eat medicine", "drink medicine" (used in the case of pills, put in the mouth, not chewed but swallowed with water). For example, have you digested the medicine yet? What is this medicine digested with, how many pills do you digest at a time?

Ancient words are like labor tools in the pre-specialized era. Before the invention of machetes, sickles, scythes, sickles, etc., the machete alone took on everything from chopping, carving, slicing, peeling, to digging, stabbing, slashing, cutting, yanking, pulling, dragging, etc. Before drinking, smoking, eating, etc., the word "eating" alone took on almost all the meanings of bringing food and drink into the body.

The case of “cắn” is similar to “ăn”. “Cắn” once had to bear a series of meanings, including snapping, barking, calling, singing, crowing, etc. “Kha Cỏ Chàn Bùng Màng, Tràng Bùng Mênh” means “The chicken in the house crows in the morning of our village” - Muong Proverb (the word “cắn” here means bit = crow). “Kha Bặt Trốc” means “The chicken crows at the beginning” (The chicken crows at the beginning of the first watch - Thanh Hoa dialect). Here we also see the word “Trốc” meaning both “head” (like Trốc Cún = knee) and also meaning first, foremost.

It should also be added that the Vietnamese entertainment program asked about the word "eat" but did not specify which of the 14 meanings "eat" has in the Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoang Phe - Vietlex). For example, the synonyms for "eat" are "sticky", "cling" (Glue does not stick), "glue" (Mortar and bricks do not stick together). Or "eat" is synonymous with "suffer", "receive" (Eat a beating; Eat a slap),... If the player is observant, they will immediately have a rebuttal, otherwise, they will be confused and bewildered about the topic raised by the program.

Back to the word “eat” in eating.

From a dialectal perspective, “duong” is synonymous with “an” - an interesting phenomenon of the loss of the old meaning of the word. The King of Vietnamese should have been someone with extensive knowledge of Vietnamese to revive these meanings, thereby bringing excitement to the audience, making TV viewers love their mother tongue more. However, neither the advisory board nor the host knew about it, so how could they guide the players, while the players probably did not have enough confidence to argue.

This mistake belongs to the entire advisory board for King of Vietnamese, but we classify it as Associate Professor Dr. Pham Van Tinh, because professionally, he is the person who must bear the highest responsibility for this mistake.

Hoang Trinh Son (Contributor)

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/an-dong-nghia-voi-uong-247536.htm