What is "cu bat cu bo"?

Rolling is a double-meaning word, used to refer to something that rolls back and forth, jumps, crawls through many positions...

So the question is, why does "cu" interrupt, "divide the mandarin duck and separate the water" between "rolling" and "rolling" to become "cu luan cu loc"? The reason is because cu is the clearest reflection of the actions of rolling and "rolling", because first of all, at least the object must be round. In other words, cu comes from the Sino-Vietnamese word "cầu", which refers to a round object.

In the vocabulary of the Southern people, there is a game called Hon Cu/ Trai Cu. It is used in games like danh cu, cu khanh, expressed through the expression "rolling like a cu". According to "Dai Nam Quoc Am Tu Vi" (1895): "Trai tron de ma danh trong". This explanation is difficult to understand because of the word trong/ danh trong. Here, this dictionary says: "Danh Trong: A game of cu, two people hold two pieces of wood and hit the cu back and forth to gain ground; the stronger person or the one who knows how to hit the cu far will gain more ground".

So, when the word "bù" is inserted to become "bù lên bù loc", what does "bù" mean? Surprisingly, bù in this context is also khúc lục/ khúc lên Cư loc. And, it is equally unique as saying cầu bò cầu bất/ cầu bất cầu bò, which is also khúc lục Bồ Cư Bất/ Cú Bất Cú Bồ . For example, the poet Tố Hữu wrote:

"I was the son of thousands of families

I am the sister of a thousand lives of decay

He is the brother of thousands of children.

No food or clothing, homeless ...".

As the character of writer Vu Trong Phung himself said: "I was born under an unlucky star. When I was still at an age when other children were pampered, cherished, and held by their parents, I was a child who had to endure many hardships alone" - maybe it was a wandering situation, homeless, neglected, and no one cared about me...

Of course, tickle has many other meanings.

"Hit Mr. To once"

He jumped up and down

Tell the matchmaker to spin the thread, he is slow and can't spin it.

So, is "cu lan" here understood as explained by the "Common Vietnamese Dictionary" (Vietlex): "Ngũ quả, slow (implied criticism or humor): What kind of person is so slow"? No. "Cù lan" in this context is the shortened form of "cù lan cu cua" - meaning the act of hesitating, delaying, dragging on, delaying. Depending on the context, it can also be understood as "cù lo cu lut", "cù nhuy"/ "cù ngang"/ "cù nhe"/ "cù nhua"...

Not only that, there is another word that can only be found in the "Dai Nam Quoc Am Tu Vi" (1895): "Cu xay: Likes to be stubborn; the word dai hoi. Debt collection, it's cu xay". In this case, with that stubborn personality, with that brazen face, the ancient Southerners called it "cu chi cu mai".

Source