nan hóa
Definition
- Adjective (Archaic):
- Difficult to educate or reform: Describes a person, typically a child or young person, who is stubbornly resistant to instruction, discipline, or moral improvement. It implies a deep-seated unruliness or incorrigibility.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- Đứa trẻ đó thật sự nan hóa, thầy giáo nào cũng phải bó tay. (That child is truly difficult to educate; every teacher is at their wits' end.)
- Tính cách nan hóa của nó khiến cha mẹ rất phiền lòng. (His incorrigible nature caused his parents great distress.)
Advanced Usage
- This term is primarily found in classical or literary texts and is rarely used in modern conversational Vietnamese. It carries a formal, almost scholarly tone when used today.
Variants and Related Words
- Nan giáo (adj): Difficult to teach; shares a very similar meaning to "nan hóa" but focuses more on the teaching aspect.
- Học sinh nan giáo (A student who is difficult to teach.)
Synonyms
- Incorrigible: (of a person or their tendencies) not able to be corrected, improved, or reformed.
- Intractable: hard to control or deal with.
- Obdurate: stubbornly refusing to change one's opinion or course of action.
- Recalcitrant: having an obstinately uncooperative attitude toward authority or discipline.
Related Idioms
- Đồng dưỡng nan giáo: An idiom describing something (like a bad habit) that, once nurtured, becomes extremely difficult to correct or teach away from.
- Thói quen xấu ấy là đồng dưỡng nan giáo. (That bad habit, once fostered, is extremely hard to eradicate.)