Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Having white or gray hair: Describes a person whose hair has turned white or gray, typically due to aging.
   • Having a white top or crest: Describes something, like a wave, that has a white foamy crest.

2. Verb (to become bạc đầu):

   • To turn gray/white (hair): The process of one's hair losing its original color and becoming white or gray.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • Ông ấy đã bạc đầu sau nhiều năm làm việc vất vả. (He has turned gray after many years of hard work.)
  • Những con sóng bạc đầu vỗ vào bờ. (The white-crested waves crashed onto the shore.)

• Verb:

  • Lo lắng nhiều có thể khiến người ta bạc đầu sớm. (Worrying a lot can make people's hair turn gray early.)

Advanced Usage

• "Đầu bạc răng long": A common idiom meaning "white hair and loose teeth," used to describe the physical signs of old age.
  • Đến tuổi đầu bạc răng long, ông ấy vẫn minh mẫn. (Even at the age of white hair and loose teeth, he remains sharp-minded.)

Variants and Related Words

• Bạc (adj): Silver; white (like the color of silver). This is the root word describing the color.
• Bạc trắng (adj): Silvery white; completely white (like hair or foam).
• Tóc bạc (n): White/gray hair.

Synonyms

• Hoa râm (adj): Salt-and-pepper hair; graying (often used before hair is fully white).
• Phơ phơ tóc bạc (adj): Literary term for flowing white hair.

Related Idioms

• "Bạc đầu vẫn chưa tỏ tường": Literally "still not wise even with a white head," meaning to have lived a long life without gaining wisdom.
  • Sống cả đời mà bạc đầu vẫn chưa tỏ tường. (To have lived a whole life but still not be wise even with white hair.)