Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Spotlessly white; dazzlingly white: Describes a pure, brilliant, and often extensive whiteness, like that of snow, bleached cloth, or white hair. It emphasizes a clean, bright, and sometimes cold or metallic white color.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Mái tóc bà cụ đã bạc phau. (The old woman's hair was spotlessly white.)
  • Cánh đồng sau trận tuyết trắng bạc phau. (The field was dazzlingly white after the snowfall.)
  • Tấm vải mới giặt trông bạc phau. (The newly washed cloth looks brilliantly white.)

Advanced Usage

• Poetic/Literary Use: "Bạc phau" is primarily used in literary, poetic, or descriptive contexts to create a vivid image. It is less common in everyday spoken language.
  • Núi đồi phủ một màu tuyết bạc phau. (The hills were covered in a color of spotlessly white snow.)

Variants and Related Words

• Bạc (adj): White (often for hair), silver; can indicate greyness or the color of metal.
  • Tóc bạc (white/grey hair)
• Phau (adj): This is a rare, descriptive word almost exclusively used in the compound "bạc phau" to intensify the meaning of "bạc," suggesting a luminous or pervasive whiteness.

Synonyms

• Trắng tinh: Pure white, immaculately white.
• Trắng xóa: Blanketing white (often over a large area).
• Trắng muốt: Pearly white, sleek white (often for teeth, fabric).

Notes on Meaning

• Visual Intensity: "Bạc phau" conveys not just whiteness but a striking, often overwhelming visual quality of whiteness. It can describe natural phenomena (snow, foam, clouds) or the whiteness of age (hair).
• Emotional Tone: It can carry connotations of purity, age, vastness, or even a certain starkness or coldness, depending on the context.

1. Spotlessly white