Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Capable and resourceful: Describes a person, typically a woman, who is competent, skillful, and adept at managing tasks, especially domestic or practical affairs. It implies a combination of diligence, cleverness, and efficiency.
   • Enterprising and industrious: Suggests a proactive, energetic, and inventive nature, someone who is good at contriving solutions and getting things done.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Cô ấy là một người phụ nữ nỏ nang, việc nhà việc cửa đều thu xếp ổn thỏa. (She is a capable and resourceful woman, managing all household matters neatly.)
  • Tiền chì mua được cá tươi, Mua rau mới hái mua người nỏ nang. (Copper coins can buy fresh fish, newly picked vegetables, and a capable and industrious person.)

Advanced Usage

• The term nỏ nang is somewhat archaic and is most commonly found in classic Vietnamese literature, proverbs (ca dao, tục ngữ), or used in a poetic or traditional context to praise domestic virtues and practical intelligence.

Variants and Related Words

• Đảm đang (adj): capable, responsible (a more common modern synonym).
  • Người mẹ rất đảm đang. (The mother is very capable.)
• Lanh lợi (adj): clever, sharp, quick-witted.
  • Đứa trẻ lanh lợi. (The child is clever.)

Synonyms

• Capable: Having the ability or competence to do something.
• Resourceful: Able to find quick and clever ways to overcome difficulties.
• Industrious: Diligent and hard-working.
• Enterprising: Having or showing initiative and resourcefulness.

Related Idioms

• The word nỏ nang itself often appears in the fixed proverb cited in the examples, which contrasts the value of money with the value of a capable person.

1. Knowing how to contrive, like a good contriver