About the two reduplicative words "sờ sế" and "sống sít"

In the previous issue of the “Chatting about words and meanings” column, we talked about two compound words that were mistakenly considered to be reduplicative, namely “đần sầu” and “ngông vàng”. In this column, we continue to analyze the isomorphic structure of the two words “sồ sế” and “sống sít”. (The part in quotation marks is the original text of the Vietnamese Reduplicative Words Dictionary - Institute of Linguistics - Hoang Van Hanh, editor-in-chief - Social Sciences Publishing House, 2011; the line breaks are our discussion):

* "SỘ SỘ tt. (kng). (usually said of women after giving birth). Bigger and fatter, looks ugly, not slim. After giving birth, she became flabby".

Sờ sế is a compound word [contemporary meaning]: the Chinese origin of sờ is the word thon 粗, meaning big, large, untidy (like to sờ; Lately I'm too fat, my body is slouchy); the Chinese origin of sế is the word trế 彘 meaning pig/sow, here it refers to the big, or clumsy appearance of a person who has given birth many times, no longer neat (like a sế girl; a sế basket; To sế to sế; Near the river, I just lean next to the root/ I dare anyone to abandon this sế girl - Folk song):

- Dai Nam Quoc Am Tu Vi (Huynh Tinh Paulus Cua) explains: "be se: the part that spreads out and grows"; "se ngang, se ra: a term used for a young girl whose buttocks (ie the muscles on both sides of her buttocks - HTC) have grown out big".

- Vietnamese dictionary (Le Van Duc) explains: “sờ • tt. To lon: Mang so (big mangosteen), to sờ.”; “sế • tt. Having given birth to many litters: Lợn sế. • (B) Having given birth to many times: Gái sế. • No-nang: Bé-sế”.

- Vietnamese dictionary (Khai Tri Tien Duc Association): “sờ • Big <>Big. Big fruit. Literature: Why not have slanted breasts, slanted waist, slouchy (Trinh-Thu).”; “sế • Refers to a sow that has given birth <>Slouty pig. Broad meaning: Refers to a woman who has given birth many times <>Slouty woman. Literature: Even if you have three or seven concubines, you still won’t be able to leave this sow (Folk song)”.

Thus, "sờ se" is a compound word, not a reduplicative word.

Reference: We can also see the TH↔S phonetic relationship [coarse↔sờ] in other cases such as giá 汰→sải (sải winnow) (sải winnow) (sải winnow) (sải winnow) (sải winnow) (sải winnow) (sải winnow) (sạt winnow) (iron and steel) (sạt winnow) (iron and steel) (sụ 鐵↔sạt winnow) (iron and steel ...

* “UNRIDICULOUS (food) is not cooked thoroughly, not cooked (generally speaking). You can eat it when it's still uncooked?”.

All the dictionaries we have in hand collect and explain the word “sít” with 2 meanings: 1. (noun): a bird the size of a chicken, with long legs, a red beak, black feathers with a blue tint, often destroying rice; 2. (adjective): very close together, as if there is no gap in between. These two meanings have nothing to do with the word “sít” in the word “sống sít”.

So what does “sít” in the word “sống sít” mean?

In fact, the word “sít” in addition to meaning “khịt” (close together), also means “sát down” (close together), “cán sát” (shallow close). Therefore, the Dai Nam Quoc Am Tu Vi (National Phonetic Dictionary) in the “sít” section, after explaining “Khit len; sat dem; thon sat”, cited a number of words such as “sít lô: stick to the bottom of the pot, close to the bottom of the pot”; “rỏm sít: Rice sticks to the bottom of the pot, burnt by the fire”; “sống sít: Not yet cooked; not cooked yet”. This dictionary also has a separate section for “rỏm sít” and explains it as “rỏm sít” (shallow close to the bottom of the pot, almost burnt).

We can understand that “sít” in “sống sít” means the type of rice that sticks to the bottom of the pot, is burnt, burnt and hard. When “sống” (sương, dưỡng) combines with “sít” (the thing that sticks to the bottom of the pot, is burnt, hard), it forms the compound word “sống sít”, and has a new meaning: “[food, fruit] is not ripe [generally speaking; implying criticism]”, as the Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoang Phe, editor - Vietlex) has explained.

So, in essence, "sờ sế" and "sống sít" are two independent compound words, not reduplicative words.

Man Nong (Contributor)

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/ve-hai-tu-lay-so-se-song-sit-271177.htm