Word of the Day for Wednesday, March 4, 2009:
ข่าวลือ /kʰàaw ˈlʉʉ/ n. rumor.
This one's pretty straight forward. ข่าวลือ /kʰàaw ˈlʉʉ/ is literally "rumored news".
Example: เรื่องนี้อย่าไปเชื่อเลย เป็นแค่ข่าวลือเฉยๆ "Don't believe that story! It's just rumor." (Click for the word-for-word.)
ลือ /lʉʉ/ on its own means to be widely spoken about, to spread around by word of mouth, carrying the connotation of rumor or lack of confirming facts. The phrase ลือกันว่า... /lʉʉ kan wâa/ means roughly, "Word on the street is..." or "It's rumored that..."
Bonus vocab: ลือ /lʉʉ/ is also found in many compounds dealing with renown and rumor. The connotations aren't necessarily negative. Compounds with ลือ include ลือชื่อ /lʉʉ ˈcʰʉ̂ʉ/ (or ลือนาม /lʉʉ 'naam/), เลื่องลือ /lʉ̂aŋ ˈlʉʉ/, or the elaborate expression เลื่องชื่อลือนาม /lʉ̂aŋ ˈcʰʉ̂ʉ lʉʉ 'naam/.
love this new feature,
ReplyDeletewill be real helpful to keep me learning a little thai everyday, now that im home (not in thailand)
thanks again
Note that ลือ is a loan from Khmer; in that language (លឺ) it's the everyday term meaning "to hear" (ยิน).
ReplyDeletei suspect that ลือ and ระบือ is related,
ReplyDeleteas in รำ and ระบำ (or ตรวจ and ตำรวจ).
Yeah, if ลือ is Khmer (and I don't doubt it is), then the ลือ/ระบือ connection is very likely. That process (infixing) is usually a clear sign of Khmer words borrowed into Thai.
ReplyDeleteNice idea.
ReplyDeleteTeasing out the general idea and showing derivatives.
Example sentences also nice.
Write a book with this sort of thing in it. Thai word study. Nothing like this anywhere.