Definition

1. Noun:
   • White-collar workers; office workers; civil servants: A term, now considered somewhat archaic, referring to people who perform intellectual or administrative work, typically in office settings, as opposed to manual labor. It often specifically denotes civil servants or government employees.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Trong xã hội cũ, dân thầy thường có địa vị cao hơn dân lao động chân tay. (In the old society, white-collar workers often had a higher status than manual laborers.)
  • Ông nội tôi trước đây là dân thầy làm việc ở một sở giáo dục. (My grandfather was formerly a white-collar worker at an education department.)

Advanced Usage

• The term dân thầy carries a historical or sociological nuance. It reflects a past social stratification where intellectual/administrative work was distinctly separated from and often valued above physical labor.
  • Sự phân biệt giữa dân thầy và dân thợ đã dần mờ nhạt trong xã hội hiện đại. (The distinction between white-collar workers and blue-collar workers has gradually faded in modern society.)

Variants and Related Words

• Công chức (n): Civil servant, government official. This is the modern, standard term.
  • Anh ấy là một công chức nhà nước. (He is a state civil servant.)
• Viên chức (n): Official, functionary. Another modern term for salaried administrative workers.
• Nhân viên văn phòng (n): Office worker/staff. A direct, descriptive modern term.

Synonyms

• Giới trí thức: The intelligentsia (broader, refers to intellectuals).
• Người làm công ăn lương: Salaried worker (more general, can include various job types).

Related Phrases

• Dân thợ (n): Blue-collar workers; manual laborers. This term is often used in contrast to dân thầy.
  • Công ty có cả dân thầy lẫn dân thợ. (The company has both white-collar and blue-collar workers.)

Related Idioms

• While dân thầy itself is not typically part of a fixed idiom, it belongs to a set of contrasting social classifications like dân thầy vs. dân thợ (white-collar vs. blue-collar) or dân thầy vs. dân quê (urban educated class vs. rural folk), which were common in historical discourse.

1. (cũ) White collar workers