Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Whitish, turning white, especially hair: Describes hair that has become white or silvery, often due to aging. This is a reduplicative form (láy) of "phơ," intensifying the meaning of whiteness or exposure.
   • Exposed, billowing, or fluttering lightly: Can describe something thin, light, and exposed to the air, moving gently (e.g., hair, fabric, feathers).

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Mái tóc bà nội đã bạc phơ phơ. (Grandmother's hair has turned silvery white.)
  • Những sợi tóc bạc phơ phơ trước gió. (The silvery white hairs fluttered in the wind.)
  • Cánh buồm phơ phơ trên mặt biển. (The sail billowed lightly on the sea surface.)

Advanced Usage

• "đầu bạc phơ phơ": A common phrase meaning "a head of silvery white hair," vividly describing the hair of an elderly person.
  • Ông cụ đã già, đầu bạc phơ phơ. (The old man is aged, with a head of silvery white hair.)

Variants and Related Words

• Phơ (verb, adjective): To sun, to air, to expose; or whitish. "Phơ phơ" is the reduplicative form.
  • phơi quần áo (to sun clothes)
  • tóc bạc phơ (silvery white hair)

Synonyms

• Bạc trắng (adj): Pure white (often for hair).
• Bạc phếch (adj): Faded white, whitish from age/sun exposure.

1. xem phơ (láy)