Definition

1. Verb:

   • To germinate; to sprout: To begin to grow or develop, like a seed starting to sprout.
   • To be in its infancy; to be nascent: To be in the very earliest stage of existence or development.

2. Adjective (used in compound form): Describing something that is just beginning or emerging.

   • Nascent; incipient; budding: Used to characterize a movement, trend, or phenomenon that is only just starting to appear.

Usage Examples

• Verb:

  • Phong trào ấy mới chỉ manh nha ở vài địa phương. (That movement has only just sprouted in a few localities.)
  • Một ý tưởng mới đang manh nha trong đầu anh ấy. (A new idea is germinating in his mind.)

• Adjective (in compound form):

  • Đây là giai đoạn manh nha của nền kinh tế số. (This is the nascent stage of the digital economy.)
  • Những mầm mống bất đồng đã manh nha từ lâu. (The seeds of disagreement had budded long ago.)

Advanced Usage

• The word is often used in formal or literary contexts to describe abstract concepts (like ideas, movements, conflicts) beginning to form, drawing a direct analogy to botanical growth.
• It typically carries a neutral connotation but can imply something fragile, not yet fully formed, or with potential for future growth.

Variants and Related Words

• Mầm mống (n): germ, seed, origin (often of something negative). This noun is closely related and frequently appears in similar contexts.
  • dập tắt mầm mống bạo loạn (to stamp out the seeds of rebellion)

Synonyms

• To begin: to start.
• To emerge: to come into existence.
• Nascent: just coming into existence and beginning to display signs of future potential.
• Incipient: in an initial stage; beginning to happen or develop.

Related Idioms

• While "manh nha" itself is not typically part of a fixed idiom, it is conceptually linked to the idiom "Trăm năm trồng người" (A hundred years to cultivate people), as both use the metaphor of cultivation and growth from an early stage.

noun

1. germ; sprout