Ba Tàu

batau Vietnamese Etymology vi Folk etymology: vi ba three tàu ship. Many Chinese refugees came to Vietnam in boats during the Qing Dynasty and were known for transporting goods by boat. One possible etymology for vi ba three is that the Nguyen lords permitted the refugees to settle in three communities, in Cù Lao Phố (present-day Đồng Nai), the Cholon district of Saigon, and Hà Tiên. A more analytical etymology goes here: vi ba likely arose in the early 19th century as an avoidance form created due to the naming taboo surrounding vi Hồ Thị Hoa (胡氏華) (see the etymology of vi hoa for a parallel case). vi tàu may derive from 曹, which belongs to the same phonetic series as 艚 and can denote “official.” The term vi mực Tàu is already attested in Alexandre de Rhodes’s Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum, which predates both the immigration of Ming refugees to Cochinchina and the emergence of the folk etymology by nearly three decades. Given that literacy had long been associated with the official class, the sense of vi mực Tàu could originally have been semantically contaminated into 'ink used by elites for writing' (en India ink, however, is still in fact an exclusively Chinese invention). Pronunciation Adjective Ba Tàu vi derogatory sometimes ethnic slur Of or pertaining to ethnic Chinese people in Vietnam. vi derogatory sometimes ethnic slur Chinese Synonyms of or pertaining to ethnic Chinese people in Vietnam Tàu Chợ Lớn, Hoa, Hán Chinese Tàu, Hoa, Hán, Trung Derived terms Tàu Tàu Chợ Lớn