Definition

1. Verb:
   • To open hostilities: To initiate or start a conflict, war, or aggressive action. This is the formal and primary meaning, indicating the first act of aggression in a dispute.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Thực dân Pháp đã khởi hấn ở Nam Bộ năm 1945. (The French colonists opened hostilities in Southern Vietnam in 1945.)
  • Không quốc gia nào muốn là bên khởi hấn. (No nation wants to be the side that opens hostilities.)
  • Hành động đó bị coi là khởi hấn. (That action was considered an opening of hostilities.)

Advanced Usage

• The term "khởi hấn" is almost exclusively used in formal, historical, or political-military contexts to describe the deliberate commencement of armed conflict or serious political confrontation.

Variants and Related Words

• Gây hấn (v): To provoke, to pick a fight. This is a more common and broader term for initiating a quarrel or conflict, not limited to full-scale war.
  • Hành động gây hấn của lực lượng đối phương. (The provocative action of the opposing force.)

Synonyms

• To initiate hostilities: To begin conflict.
• To start a war: To commence warfare.
• To launch an aggression: To begin an attack.

Related Idioms

• While "khởi hấn" itself is not typically part of a longer idiom, the concept is central to phrases like:
  • "Bên khởi hấn": The aggressor; the party that started the conflict.

    • Bên khởi hấn sẽ phải chịu trách nhiệm. (The aggressor will have to bear responsibility.)

1. Open the hostilities