僕歐

僕歐

Chinese

		servant	phonetic
trad. (僕歐)		僕	歐
simp. (仆欧)		仆	欧

Etymology

Phono-semantic matching of English boy, via Shanghainese.

Compare French boy, Vietnamese bồi, Thai บ๋อย (bɔ̌i), Khmer បោយ (baoy), Lao ໂບຍ (bōi) ― various borrowings from the English term, all meaning “(male) servant”.

Pronunciation

• Mandarin

  (Pinyin): pú'ōu

  (Zhuyin): ㄆㄨˊ ㄡ

• Cantonese (Jyutping): buk⁶ au¹
• Wu (Wiktionary): boq eu (T5)

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• Mandarin
  • (Standard Chinese)⁺
    • Pinyin: pú'ōu
    • Zhuyin: ㄆㄨˊ ㄡ
    • Gwoyeu Romatzyh: pwuou
    • IPA ^(key): /pʰu³⁵ ˀoʊ̯⁵⁵/
• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou)⁺
    • Jyutping: buk⁶ au¹
    • Yale: buhk āu
    • Cantonese Pinyin: buk⁹ au¹
    • Guangdong Romanization: bug⁶ eo¹
    • IPA ^(key): /pʊk̚² ɐu̯⁵⁵/
• Wu
  • (Shanghainese)
    • Wiktionary: boq eu (T5)
    • IPA ^(key): /b̻ʊʔ¹¹ ɜ²³/

Noun

僕歐

1. (dated) waiter; attendant