Definition

1. Adjective:

   • Bitter (in taste): The literal meaning describing a sharp, pungent, and often unpleasant taste, like that of unripe fruit, black coffee, or certain medicines.
   • Bitter (in feeling): The figurative meaning describing intense feelings of resentment, disappointment, grief, or painful hardship.

2. Noun (figurative):

   • Bitterness: Used to refer to the state or experience of intense suffering, hardship, or emotional pain.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:

  • Vị thuốc này rất cay đắng. (This medicine tastes very bitter.)
  • Anh ấy có một tuổi thơ cay đắng. (He had a bitter childhood.)
  • Thất bại cay đắng. (A bitter defeat.)

• Noun:

  • Cuộc đời chứa đầy cay đắng. (Life is full of bitterness.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is often intensified through repetition or pairing with synonyms like "ghét cay ghét đắng" (to hate bitterly/to hate someone's guts), expressing extreme hatred or resentment.
• It is commonly used in poetic or literary contexts to convey profound sorrow or the harshness of life's experiences.

Variants and Related Words

• Cay (adj): Can mean spicy/pungent (for food) or bitter/resentful (for feelings). Often used separately from "đắng" but with similar figurative connotations.
• Đắng (adj): Specifically means bitter in taste. Its figurative use is almost exclusively in the compound "cay đắng."

Synonyms

• Bitter: The primary direct synonym for both taste and feeling.
• Painful: For the emotional experience.
• Resentful: For the feeling of bitterness.
• Acrimonious: For bitter feelings or speech.

Related Idioms and Phrases

• Trăm cay nghìn đắng: (Lit. a hundred spicy, a thousand bitter) An idiom meaning "plagued by all kinds of bitterness" or "a life full of innumerable hardships."

  • Cuộc đời trăm cay nghìn đắng của người phụ nữ ngày xưa. (The life full of all kinds of bitterness of women in the old times.)

• Ghét cay ghét đắng: (Lit. to hate bitterly [and] to hate bitterly) An idiom meaning to hate someone or something intensely, with a deep-seated resentment.

  • Họ ghét cay ghét đắng kẻ phản bội. (They bitterly hate the traitor.)

1. Bitter
   • thất bại cay đắng
     a bitter defeat
   • Trên đời nghìn vạn điều cay đắng Cay đắng chi bằng mất tự do
     In life, the bitters are legion but none is bitterer than the loss of freedom
   • trăm cay nghìn đắng
     plagued by all kinds of bitterness
   • cuộc đời trăm cay nghìn đắng của người phụ nữ ngày xưa
     the life full of all kinds of bitterness of women in the old times