สวย

See also: ส่วย

Thai

Pronunciation

Orthographic/Phonemicสวย
s w y
RomanizationPaiboonsǔai
Royal Institutesuai
(standard) IPA(key)/sua̯j˩˩˦/(R)

Etymology 1

Jonsson (1991) suggested a derivation from a Proto-Southwestern Tai *suəjᴬ¹ (handsome; slender),[1] but most Southwestern Tai languages lack reflexes for this hypothetical term.

Suthiwan and Tadmor (2009) regards สวย (sǔai) as a loanword from Teochew (sui², beautiful).[2]

In Southwestern Tai, cognate with Lao ສວຍ (suāi).

Adjective

สวย • (sǔai) (abstract noun ความสวย)

  1. beautiful
  2. (of rice) perfectly steamed; well steamed
Synonyms
Antonyms
Derived terms

Etymology 2

Corrupted from ซวย (suai).

Verb

สวย • (sǔai)

  1. (colloquial) to undergo something bad, such as to get scolded or punched

References

  1. ^ Jonsson, Nanna L. (1991) Proto Southwestern Tai (Doctoral dissertation), Department of Humanistic Studies, The State University of New York at Albany
  2. ^ Suthiwan, Titima; Tadmor, Uri (2009) ”Loanwords in Thai” In Haspelmath, Martin; Tadmor, Uri (eds.) Loanwords in the world’s languages: a comparative handbook Berlin, Boston: Mouton de Gruyter, page 612

Further reading

  • สวย” in Thai Dictionary Project (TDP) (UC Berkeley 1964) (plus additional data from the Royal Institute of Thailand (RI) and NECTEC's LEXITRON project (LEX)). Searchable online at SEAlang.net.