Definition

1. Adjective:
   • Very close, intimate, and of long standing: Describes a deep, enduring, and profoundly close friendship or relationship, often built over a very long time. It implies a bond that is not only strong but also rooted in shared history and mutual understanding.

Usage Examples

• Adjective:
  • Họ là đôi bạn thâm giao, hiểu nhau từng chút một. (They are intimate friends who understand each other completely.)
  • Mối quan hệ thâm giao của hai gia đình đã kéo dài ba thế hệ. (The intimate relationship between the two families has lasted for three generations.)
  • Chỉ có bạn thâm giao mới có thể nói chuyện thẳng thắn như vậy. (Only a very close friend can speak so frankly.)

Advanced Usage

• The term is almost exclusively used to describe platonic, profound friendships or alliances, not romantic relationships. It carries a formal and literary tone.
• It often functions attributively before nouns like (friend) or (relationship).

Variants and Related Words

• Bạn thâm giao (n): an intimate friend, a close and long-standing friend.
  • Ông ấy là một bạn thâm giao của cha tôi. (He is an intimate friend of my father's.)

Synonyms

• Intimate: Closely acquainted, very familiar.
• Close-knit: Bound by strong social and emotional ties.
• Long-standing: Having existed for a long period.

Related Idioms

• While "thâm giao" itself is not typically part of a common idiom, the concept is central to the classical Vietnamese proverb:
  • "Giàu đổi bạn, sang đổi vợ" (Richness changes friends, nobility changes wives). This proverb criticizes those who abandon bạn thâm giao for wealth or status.

adj

1. very close