About some reduplicative words "nausea", "riddled", "difficult", "grumpy"

In the previous issue of the article "Chatting about words and meanings", we pointed out four compound words that were mistakenly recognized as reduplicative by the Vietnamese Reduplicative Dictionary: quarrel, spite, bow, and drag. In this article, we continue to analyze the independent meanings of the four words: nausea, ravenous, miserable, and grumpy (the part in quotation marks after the entry number is the original text of the Vietnamese Reduplicative Dictionary - Institute of Linguistics - editor-in-chief Hoang Van Hanh; the line breaks are our discussion):

1 - “HANGOVER dgt. 1. Having an uncomfortable feeling in the body like being swayed, dizzy, nauseous. Hangover like a seasick person. A person who is nauseous is uncomfortable. “He felt nauseous, his limbs were weak as if he had been fasting for three days” (Nam Cao); 2. Feeling uneasy, emotionally agitated when longing for, remembering something. The moments of waiting, waiting, nauseous. “Lying on my back, I remember the moon, lying on my side, I remember the wharf, Sitting up, I remember the mountain pass.” (Pham Tien Duat)”.

Nausea is a compound word [homogenous meaning], in which: vomit means to vomit, to vomit; to have a feeling of restlessness, impatience (like Thinking about it makes me nauseous; He vomited when he visited home so there was no way to hold it back).

The Vietnamese dictionary (Hoang Phe, editor-in-chief) explains vomit as “impatient, impatient” and gives the example “vomit and go home early”; ~“Just now, I vomited so much, I kept asking to go out but they wouldn’t let me.” (Anh Duc). Con nao means a feeling of being unsteady, restless in the heart (like being restless; Even though it is difficult, I am not restless; My heart is already certain/ No one is urging me to stand or sit, why am I restless - Folk song).

Thus, the idioms “go home early to vomit”, “nausea”, “despite hardship, don't be discouraged”, “Who urges to stand or sit, why not be discouraged”, have shown us that nausea is a compound word, not a reduplicative word.

2 - “GRUNTING tt. There is an uncomfortable feeling of nausea as if being rubbed and eroded in the stomach in consecutive waves. Drinking a lot of tea makes the stomach gnaw at the gut. Hunger makes the whole body gnaw at the body. “Sometimes porridge, sometimes sweet potatoes, plowing and going to school, The stomach gnaws and the letters run unsteadily” (Nguyen Duy)”.

Cồn cao is a compound word [similar meaning], in which: con means rising waves (like rising waves) with a broad meaning referring to the feeling of restlessness and nausea in the stomach, like rising waves (like Hungry, hungry, scratching; Stomach, scratching liver; Lately I feel like I have no appetite, don't eat.); cao means to scratch and tear (like a cat scratches; While hungry, eating something sour will scratch and tear out the intestines); "cồn cao" refers to the feeling like waves are pushing up (con) and the hand is scratching inside (cao).

Thus, the text "Lately I feel loss of appetite, stomach rumbling" or "I'm hungry and eating sour food makes my stomach rumble" shows that "con gao" is a compound word, not a reduplicative word.

3 - “HARD WORK tt Extreme hardship and suffering. The miserable life of farmers under feudalism”.

The word "co cuc" 飢極 is a Sino-Vietnamese compound word [meaning the same era]: "co" 飢 means hunger (co cung 飢窮 = extreme hunger and poverty; "co han 飢寒" = hunger and cold; "co kho" 飢苦 = extreme poverty and hunger; "fire burns the intestines, cold knives cut the skin; saving food to prevent poverty"); "cuc" 極 means suffering, hardship (like "Eating alone is painful, working alone is extremely painful"). The great Chinese dictionary explains: "co" means "not being full; too hungry" [original text: ngất bất bao; ngã - 吃不飽; 餓]; and "cuc" is "distressing, causing misery; suffering." [original text: poverty, causing misery; suffering - 困窘, 使之困窘; 疲困].

Thus, although limited, in the sentences “Tich coc phong co” (Stirring food to prevent co); “Fire of co burns the intestines, welding knife cuts the skin”), “co” (hunger) appears as an independent word in the function. Therefore, “co cuc” is still a compound word, not a reduplicative word.

4 - “GRUTTY tt. Easily irritable, rude and having harsh words; rude (generally speaking). Grumpy disposition. Rough, rude speech”.

"Cục gẩn" is a compound word [similar in meaning], in which "cục" (or "cộc", Thanh Hoa dialect) means being irritable and rude (like "cục tính"; "cộc tính"); "cần" means dry and infertile, understood figuratively as a dry temperament, speech lacking gentleness and softness (like barren land; barren soul; Thanh Hoa dialect: tính căn, for example: That guy is very stubborn):

In the word "barren", "coi" also means old, stunted, dry, lifeless, and infertile. For example, barren trees, barren land...

Thus, the four cases: hangover, ravenous, miserable, grumpy, that we analyzed above are all compound words, not reduplicative words.

Hoang Trinh Son (Contributor)

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/ve-mot-so-tu-lay-non-nao-con-cao-co-cuc-cuc-can-235442.htm