Bitter melon, scientifically known as Momordica charantia, is a tropical and subtropical plant belonging to the Cucurbitaceae family, widely cultivated in Asia, Africa, and the Caribbean. There are many different varieties of bitter melon, varying in shape and bitterness. In Chinese, bitter melon (苦瓜) is also called 涼瓜 (liang gua),半生瓜(ban sheng gua), 癞葡萄 (lai bo dao), and锦荔枝 (jin li zhi); in Japanese it is called nigauri or gōya (苦瓜, ゴーヤ), and in Korean it is called yeoju (여주).
The character "qua" (瓜) in "khổ qua" (bitter gourd) is also used to refer to various types of melons, gourds, pumpkins, and loofahs in general. For example, "bào qua" is a gourd; "đông qua " or "phấn qua" is a winter melon; " hàn qua" or "tây qua" is a watermelon; " hoàng qua" is a Laotian pumpkin; " quả" is a cucumber; "thái qua " is a loofah; " vương qua" is a cantaloupe; "gia qua" is an eggplant; "mộc qua" is a papaya; and besides meaning pumpkin, "bắc qua " is also used to refer to a type of white-skinned watermelon called "nam qua," "uy qua," or "phiên qua "... These terms are rarely used today and are only found in ancient texts.
Generally, "khổ qua" is a Southern dialect term, a Sino-Vietnamese transliteration of the Chinese character 苦瓜 (kǔguā); while "mướp đắng" is a Northern dialect term, also derived from the Chinese character 苦瓜. Both terms have been recorded in Jean Louis Taberd's Dictionarium latino-anamiticum (1838) and Huỳnh Tịnh Paulus Của's Đại Nam Quấc Âm Tự vị (1895).
In Chinese, besides the character瓜(gua) mentioned above, there are other characters with different writings and meanings. For example:戈(gua) is a spear, an ancient weapon;瘑(gua) is a boil;簻(gua) is a horse whip or stick;髽(gua) is a mendicant hairstyle made of hemp fiber worn by women in ancient times;騧(gua) is a horse with a yellow body and black muzzle; and 坩堝 ( kham gua ) is pottery, a pot used for melting gold and silver...
In the Nôm script, the word " qua" (戈) is also used to refer to time (yesterday), movement, direction (going through a door), observation (looking around)... This word is borrowed from the Chinese word 戈 - a word that the Chinese also used to refer to "a spear" (an ancient weapon) or to mean "war," for example, "nhật tầm can qua" (日尋干戈), meaning "the day of starting a fight."
The personal pronoun "qua" is a purely Vietnamese word, often used to mean "I" (a person of higher status), written with two Nôm characters, 戈 and 過, borrowed from Chinese through the method of loanwords. For example, the story of Thạch Sanh , written in Nôm characters: " I set aside a plate for you, at home my mother and I have already eaten" (lines 423-424).
After 1975, the pronoun " qua " was rarely used, but in 2018 it suddenly became popular, sparking heated discussions when businessman Dang Le Nguyen Vu referred to himself as "qua" instead of the usual pronoun "I".
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