ชี

Thai

Buddhist female lay renunciants

Christian nuns

mayfly

coriander leaves

Chi River

Pronunciation

Orthographic/Phonemic		ชี d͡ʑ ī
Romanization	Paiboon	chii
	Royal Institute	chi
(standard) IPA^(key)		/t͡ɕʰiː˧/^(R)

Etymology 1

From Sanskrit jī (“an honorific title”), according to the Royal Institute Dictionary 2011; but more likely to be from Old Khmer jī, jīha, jiha, jīya, jiya, ji (“grandfather, elderly person; forefather, ancestor; patriarch; venerable woman, religieuse; etc”), or from Pre-Angkorian Old Khmer ʼaji, ʼajī, ʼji, ji, jī (“idem”), or from Angkorian Old Khmer ʼji, ʼjī, ji, jī (“idem”), and thus cognate with Modern Khmer ជី (cii). Perhaps cognate with or borrowed as Lao ຊີ (sī).

Alternative forms

^†ชีย
^†ชีย์

Noun

ชี • (chii) (classifier คน or ตน or รูป)

(archaic, irrespective of the sex) priest.
(แม่~, นาง~, ยาย~) female priest; priestess; religieuse.
(Buddhism) (แม่~, นาง~, ยาย~) female lay renunciant: laywoman who has her own hair and eyebrows shaved, vows to adhere to ศีลแปด (“Eight Precepts”), and is often seen wearing a white robe.
(Christianity) (แม่~, นาง~) nun.

Derived terms

กล้วยบวชชี
ชั่วช่างชี ดีช่างสงฆ์
ชีต้น
ชีปะขาว
ชีเปลือย
ชีพราหมณ์
ชีพุก
ชีมืด
ทชี

Etymology 2

From clipping of ชีปะขาว.

Noun

ชี • (chii) (classifier ตัว)

(แมลง~) mayfly: any insect of the order Ephemeroptera.

Etymology 3

Cognate with Lao ຊີ (sī), Shan ၵီး (kíi).

Noun

ชี • (chii)

(ผัก~) coriander: the plant Coriandrum sativum of the family Apiaceae.

Synonyms

ชีลา
หอมป้อม

Derived terms

ชีฝรั่ง
ชีล้อม (chii-lɔ́ɔm)
ชีลา
ชีลาว
ผักชีโรยหน้า (pàk-chii-rooi-nâa)

Descendants

From "ผักชี":
- → Japanese: パクチー

Etymology 4

From Isan ซี.

Proper noun

ชี • (chii)

(แม่น้ำ~, น้ำ~, แม่~) Chi River, the longest river in Thailand.

Verb

ชี • (chii) (abstract noun การชี)

(of a downy substance) to diffuse; to spread; to scatter.

Derived terms

ประชี

Etymology 6

From English she.

Pronoun

ชี • (chii)

(slang, humorous, originally LGBT) a third person pronoun, originally used to address a woman or effeminate man, now used irrespective of the sex of the addressee: he, she, they, etc.