Definition

Verb: - To lose one's chastity (especially of a woman): The primary meaning refers to a woman losing her virginity or engaging in sexual relations outside of marriage, thereby failing to preserve her virtue or fidelity, particularly in a traditional or Confucian context. This term is considered literary and somewhat archaic.

Usage Examples

• Verb:
  • Trong xã hội phong kiến, người con gái bị coi là đã thất thân nếu không còn trinh tiết trước hôn nhân. (In feudal society, a woman was considered to have lost her chastity if she was no longer a virgin before marriage.)
  • Câu chuyện kể về một cô gái thất thân và những hệ lụy bi thảm sau đó. (The story tells of a girl who lost her chastity and the tragic consequences that followed.)

Advanced Usage

• The term "thất thân" is strongly associated with outdated, patriarchal values that placed extreme importance on female virginity and marital fidelity. Its usage today is largely confined to historical, literary, or critical discussions about such values. It is not used in modern, neutral contexts.
• It can sometimes be used metaphorically in very formal or poetic language to mean a profound loss of integrity or a fall from grace, though this is rare.

Variants and Related Words

• Thất tiết (verb): A near-synonym meaning to lose one's virtue or chastity. It carries a similar archaic and judgmental tone.
• Mất trinh (verb phrase): A more direct, modern, and colloquial term meaning to lose one's virginity. It is less morally charged than "thất thân".

Synonyms

• To lose one's virginity: Mất trinh.
• To be deflowered: (A formal/literary English equivalent, often with a similar passive construction).

Notes on Meaning

• The term exclusively refers to a woman's loss of chastity. There is no direct male equivalent in Vietnamese with the same cultural weight.
• The reference from the Vietnamese-French dictionary ("avoir vu le loup" – a French idiom meaning 'to have seen the wolf', i.e., to have lost one's virginity) and the Vietnamese-Vietnamese definition ("Mất tiết, không giữ trọn đạo với chồng" – To lose virtue, to not keep one's full duty to one's husband) confirm its specific, gendered, and moralistic historical usage.

verb

1. to lose one's chastity