nhẻm
Definition
- Adjective:
- Very black; jet-black; pitch-black: Describes an intense, deep, and often uniform black color. It often implies a pure, dark blackness without shine or other hues.
- Sooty; grimy with black dirt: Can describe something blackened, often due to dirt, soot, or smoke.
Usage Examples
- Adjective:
- Bầu trời đen nhẻm trước cơn bão. (The sky was pitch-black before the storm.)
- Tay nó nhẻm vì nghịch than. (His hands were sooty from playing with coal.)
- Chiếc xe cũ được sơn màu đen nhẻm. (The old car was painted a jet-black color.)
Advanced Usage
- The word "nhẻm" is almost exclusively used in combination with "đen" (black) to form the compound "đen nhẻm", which intensifies the quality of blackness. It is rare to see "nhẻm" used alone in modern Vietnamese.
Variants and Related Words
- Đen nhẻm (adj): The standard and most common form, meaning jet-black or sooty black.
- Cái ống khói làm cả tường nhà đen nhẻm. (The chimney made the whole house wall sooty black.)
Synonyms
- Jet-black: of a deep, glossy black color.
- Pitch-black: extremely dark; completely black.
- Sooty: covered with or colored like soot; blackened.
Notes on Usage
- "Nhẻm" is a descriptive adjective that intensifies color, specifically black. Its usage is largely idiomatic and fixed within the phrase "đen nhẻm".
- It carries a connotation of a matte, sometimes dirty or unrefined, deep black, as opposed to a shiny or elegant black (which might be described as ).