Definition

1. Noun:
   • Urban power station, urban power house: "nhà đèn" refers to the organization or facility responsible for generating and distributing electricity for a city or town. This term is now considered archaic.
   • Electricity company/office (in a city): It can also denote the administrative office or entity managing the urban electricity supply.

Usage Examples

• Noun:
  • Ông nội tôi từng làm việc ở nhà đèn Sài Gòn. (My grandfather used to work at the Saigon power station.)
  • Trước đây, hóa đơn tiền điện được gọi là hóa đơn của nhà đèn. (In the past, the electricity bill was called the bill from the power company.)

Advanced Usage

• This term is almost exclusively used in historical or literary contexts to refer to early 20th-century urban electrification. It evokes a specific period in Vietnam's modernization.
• It can be used metaphorically to symbolize early modernity or industrialization in a city.
  • Sự xuất hiện của nhà đèn đánh dấu một thời kỳ mới cho đô thị. (The appearance of the power station marked a new era for the city.)

Variants and Related Words

• Công ty điện lực (n): Electricity company (modern, standard term).
• Trạm phát điện (n): Power generating station (technical term for the facility itself).
• Đèn điện (n): Electric light (the product supplied by the "nhà đèn").

Synonyms

• Nhà máy điện thành phố: City power plant.
• Cơ quan cung cấp điện đô thị (cũ): Urban electricity supply agency (archaic).

Related Phrases

• Giấy nhà đèn: A historical term for an electricity bill or official document from the power company.
  • Tìm thấy một tờ giấy nhà đèn cũ trong chiếc rương. (Found an old electricity bill in the trunk.)

Related Idioms

• No common idioms are directly based on this specific term due to its archaic and technical nature. It may appear in period literature or stories describing life in early modern Vietnamese cities.

1. (cũ) Urban power-station, urban power-house