giá áo
Definition
- Noun:
- Clothes hanger, coat rack: A piece of furniture or device used for hanging clothes, coats, or hats to keep them neat and prevent wrinkles.
- Parasitic and useless people; good-for-nothings: (Archaic, figurative) A derogatory term referring to people who are considered social parasites, living off others without contributing anything useful.
Usage Examples
Noun (Literal meaning):
- Cô ấy treo áo khoác lên giá áo. (She hung her coat on the coat rack.)
- Chúng tôi cần mua một cái giá áo mới cho phòng ngủ. (We need to buy a new clothes hanger for the bedroom.)
Noun (Figurative, archaic meaning):
- Bọn giá áo túi cơm ấy chỉ biết ăn bám. (Those good-for-nothings only know how to live as parasites.) (Note: This usage is now rare and considered old-fashioned.)
Advanced Usage
- The figurative meaning is almost obsolete in modern Vietnamese. When encountered, it is typically in historical texts or used for stylistic effect to convey strong contempt, often in the fixed phrase "giá áo túi cơm" (literally "coat rack and rice bag"), describing utterly useless individuals.
Variants and Related Words
- Móc áo / Mắc áo (n): Clothes hook; a single hook for hanging an item of clothing. This is a more common word for a simple hanger.
- Phơi đồ (n): Clothes drying rack (often for outdoor use).
- Túi cơm (n): (Literally "rice bag") A derogatory term for a useless person who only consumes food. Often paired with in the archaic idiom.
Synonyms
- Kẻ ăn bám (n): Parasite, freeloader (for the figurative meaning).
- Kẻ vô dụng (n): Useless person, good-for-nothing (for the figurative meaning).
Related Idioms
- Giá áo túi cơm: (Idiom) A fixed phrase meaning "parasites and useless people." It is a strongly derogatory term from classical literature.
- Họ chẳng làm được trò trống gì, đúng là lũ giá áo túi cơm. (They can't do anything right; they're truly a bunch of good-for-nothings.)