Definition

1. Noun:
   • Cockcrow: The cry of a rooster, especially the first crow at dawn that traditionally signals the approaching sunrise and the end of the night.
   • A unit of time: In ancient Vietnamese timekeeping, "canh gà" referred to a specific period of the night, measured by the crows of a rooster.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Nghe tiếng canh gà, biết trời sắp sáng. (Hearing the cockcrow, one knows dawn is approaching.)
  • Chàng trai ra đi từ lúc canh gà thứ ba. (The young man departed at the third cockcrow of the night.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is primarily used in literary, poetic, or historical contexts to evoke a traditional rural atmosphere or to measure time in an ancient way. It is not commonly used in modern daily conversation to tell time.

Variants and Related Words

• Gà gáy (v): the action of a rooster crowing.
  • Con gà trống gáy vào lúc bình minh. (The rooster crows at dawn.)

Synonyms

• Dawn chorus: bird sounds at daybreak.
• Rooster's crow: the specific sound made by a rooster.

Related Idioms

• Canh gà Thọ Xương: A famous phrase from a well-known Vietnamese folk poem ("Gió đưa cành trúc la đà / Tiếng chuông Trấn Vũ, canh gà Thọ Xương") describing the characteristic sound (the cockcrow) of the Thọ Xương district, evoking a nostalgic image of old Hanoi.
  • Câu thơ nhắc đến canh gà Thọ Xương rất nổi tiếng. (The verse mentioning the Thọ Xương cockcrow is very famous.)

1. Cockcrow (announcing dawn)