Tricky Words: Love at First Sight

Yes, "Love at first sight" is a phrase that appeared around the 20th century, for example the sentence: "He was struck by love at first sight" in the novel Midnight Moonfall (1963) by Binh Nguyen Loc (p.15).

"Tinh tho tinh" is a phrase translated (or developed) from "Coup de foudre" - an idiom that appeared in French in the 17th century, at that time "Coup de foudre" only meant "thunder" or "lightning strike". When compiling the Vietnamese - French dictionary, Jean Bonet also explained it like this: "coup de foudre - Lightning strike" (Dictionnaire Annamite-Français (Langue Officielle Et Langue Vulgaire) , 1900, p. 208). "Danh tho" means "lightning strike" according to current grammar, associated with surprise caused by an unexpected, unpleasant event, and has nothing to do with love. Figuratively, the term "is the unforeseen troubles, like the tinsel that pierces our hearts" ( Dictionnaire universel by Antoine Furetière (1690). It was not until the end of the 18th century that the phrase took on a romantic air: "coup de foudre" is the sudden birth of intense love" - Dictionary of the French Academy (Dictionnaire de l'académie française , 1798).

"Love at first sight" is an ancient phenomenon, a type of intense or crazy love that the Greeks called "theia mania" ("madness from the gods"). In the Bible, "love at first sight" occurs when Isaac first sees Rebekah (Genesis 24:67), or when Jacob first met Rachel.

"Love at first sight" is a psychological, metaphorical effect, related to "love arrow" or "love dart", phrases derived from the god Eros or Cupid, sometimes from the god Rumor in Greek and Roman mythology.

During the Middle Ages, Renaissance and Baroque, the "arrow of love" was a motif used by the Provençal troubadours of southern France, especially in the 11th and 12th centuries, and became part of the tradition of courtly love in Europe. There are many stories of love at first sight in literature, such as Romeo falling in love with Juliet at first sight ( Romeo and Juliet - 1597 by William Shakespeare); Marius Pontmercy and Cosette falling in love at first sight ( Les Misérables - 1862 by Victor Hugo)...

In Vietnamese fairy tales, there are also "love at first sight" stories, such as the feeling of the first time Truong Chi (a fisherman's son) met My Nuong (a prime minister's daughter). If "Love at first sight" in Vietnamese is used to describe the feeling of "love at first sight", the French use the term Coup de foudre , corresponding to the meaning of Love at first sight in English, Amore a prima vista (Italian) or Flechazo (Spanish); and is similar to Любо́вь с пе́рвого взгля́да in Russian; Hitomebore (一目ぼれ) - Japanese or Yījiànzhōngqíng (一見鍾情) in Chinese - the Sino-Vietnamese transcription is "Nhất kiến chung tình".

Yes, in Chinese literature there are also many cases of "love at first sight", for example the love story between Cui Ying Ying and Zhang Junrui in the play The West Chamber by Wang Shifu; or Li Tianjin and Pei Yaojun in the play Wall Head Horse by Bai Pu...

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