bạc đầu
Definition
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.
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.)