Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Self-tormenting, self-afflicting: Describes the state of causing oneself unnecessary suffering, distress, or hardship, often through one's own thoughts, actions, or persistent negative emotions.
   • Pitiable, deserving of pity: Can describe someone in a state that evokes sympathy or compassion from others due to their suffering or difficult situation.

Usage

• As an adjective: Used to describe a person or their state. It often carries a tone of admonishment or sympathy, suggesting the suffering is partly self-inflicted or unnecessarily prolonged.
  • Đừng có khổ thân như thế! (Don't be so self-tormenting like that!)
  • Nhìn nó khổ thân quá. (He/She looks so pitiable.)

Examples

• (To go on grieving is just self-tormenting because a dead person cannot rise again.)
• (She keeps worrying about the past, it's truly self-tormenting.)
• (The orphan child looks truly pitiable.)

Advanced Usage

• The word is often used in advice or exclamations to tell someone to stop a behavior that is harming themselves emotionally.
  • Khổ thân tôi quá! (How pitiable I am! / I'm so miserable!) – An exclamation expressing one's own perceived suffering.

Variants and Related Words

• Khổ (adj, n): Suffering, hardship, misery. The root word.
• Khổ sở (adj): Miserable, distressed, in a state of hardship. Often describes physical or material suffering.
• Thân (n): Body, self. In this compound, it emphasizes the personal, self-directed nature of the suffering.

Synonyms

• Tự làm khổ mình: To make oneself suffer.
• Đáng thương: Pitiable, deserving pity.
• Tội nghiệp: Pitiful, pathetic (often evokes stronger sympathy).

Notes on Different Meanings

1. Primary Meaning (Self-tormenting): Focuses on the active or passive role one plays in one's own suffering. It implies a degree of unnecessary persistence in a painful state.
2. Secondary Meaning (Pitiable): Focuses on the external perception of someone's suffering, evoking compassion. The line between "self-inflicted" and "externally caused" suffering can blur in this usage.

1. Self-tormenting
   • Buồn rầu mãi chỉ khổ thân mà người chết cũng không sống lại được
     To go on grieving is just self-tormenting because a dead, cannot rise again