"Eating" is synonymous with "drinking".

The contestant suggested the word "drink," but all three judges on the show shook their heads in unison, saying, "I disagree."

In fact, the advisory board was wrong to reject the player's suggestion that the word "drink" should be synonymous with "eat."

The Đại Nam Quốc Âm Tự Vị and the Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoàng Phê - Vietlex) contain the word "ăn" (to eat) as synonymous with "hút" (to smoke). They quote respectively: "ăn thuốc: Smoking tobacco, or opium. In colloquialisms: someone who eats tobacco is understood to be someone who smokes opium"; "ăn 2: chewing betel nut or smoking tobacco. Eating a piece of betel nut ~ lighting a match to smoke tobacco."

However, the word "eat" (in dialects, such as Thanh Hoa ), besides being synonymous with "smoke," is also used as "drink." In some areas of Thanh Hoa (such as the former Quang Xuong and Tinh Gia districts), people still say "eat a sip of water" instead of "drink a mouthful of water" (Wait, let me eat a sip of water before I go); "eat medicine" instead of "drink medicine" (I've already taken several stomach ache pills and I'm still not satisfied); "eat a pipe of tobacco" instead of "smoke a pipe of tobacco" (for example, Try one to see if it tastes good).

Reference: Interestingly, in Thanh Hoa, the word "tieu" is synonymous with "eat" and "drink," such as "tieu thuoc" meaning "to eat medicine" or "to drink medicine" (used in the case of pills, which are put in the mouth without chewing and swallowed with water). For example, "Have you digested your medicine yet this morning? What are these pills digested with, and how many pills do you need to digest at once?"

Ancient words are like tools in the early days before specialization. Before the invention of machetes, sickles, scythes, and scythes, the single sickle handled everything from chopping, carving, slicing, and peeling to digging, stabbing, slashing, cutting, pulling, and dragging. Before the words "drink," "smoke," "eat," and "consume," the word "eat" alone carried almost all the meaning of bringing food and drink into the body.

The case of "bite" is similar to "eat." "Bite" once had to carry a multitude of meanings alone, including to bite, bark, cry, sing, crow, etc. "Kha cỏ cạn bứng máng, tràng bứng mếnh" means "The chicken in someone else's house crows at dawn in our village" - Muong proverb (the word "cằn" here means bite = crow). "Kha cắn trốc" means "The first rooster crows" (the rooster crows at the first watch of the night - Thanh Hoa dialect). Here, we also see the word "trốc" meaning both "head" (like "trốc cún" = knee) and "first" or "initial."

It's also worth noting that the Vietnamese language entertainment program posed a question about the word "eat" but didn't specify which of the 14 meanings listed in the Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoang Phe - Vietlex) it refers to. For example, synonyms for "eat" include "stick" or "cling" (glue doesn't stick), "attach tightly" (mortar and brick don't stick together). Or "eat" is synonymous with "endure" or "receive" (to receive a beating; to receive a slap),... A clever contestant would immediately offer a counter-argument; otherwise, they would be confused and bewildered by the question posed by the program.

Let's go back to the word "eat" in the context of eating and drinking.

From a dialectal perspective, "drink" is synonymous with "eat"—an interesting phenomenon of the word's ancient meaning being lost. The "King of Vietnamese" should ideally be someone with extensive knowledge of the Vietnamese language to revive these meanings, thereby making the show more engaging for viewers and fostering a greater love for their mother tongue. However, neither the advisory panel nor the host are aware of this, making it impossible to guide the contestants, especially since the contestants likely lack the confidence to offer counterarguments.

This error is the responsibility of the entire advisory board of the Vietnamese Language King, but we attribute it to Associate Professor Dr. Pham Van Tinh because, professionally speaking, he bears the highest responsibility for this mistake.

Hoang Trinh Son (Contributor)

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