“Free range” - from word to meaning

Reader Le Phi Long ( Binh Phuoc ) said: “I often read articles about language in the column “Ca ke chuyen chu nghia” of Thanh Hoa Newspaper, and I learned many things. Many words, idioms, and proverbs only when I read the article “ca ke” did I realize that I had misunderstood and used them incorrectly. Indeed, our Vietnamese language is extremely rich, living a lifetime is not enough to fully understand and use our mother tongue correctly.

Recently I read in the newspaper and learned that at a conference, a Director of Department X said: "I think it's time we face this problem. Every year the city increases hundreds of thousands of vehicles, if we continue to let it go like this, we will never be able to handle traffic congestion."

The director’s statement has met with opposition, because it is believed that the leader of a department using the word “free range” like that is offensive, uncultured, and insulting to the people. So, we would like to ask the column “Chatting about words” to explain how the use of the word “free range” here is understood, is it acceptable?

Thank you very much".

Answer: We know the story related to the word “free range” that reader Le Phi Long mentioned, and some readers have also sent us similar questions.

The word "rông" or "rong" or "nhông" (like running around the neighborhood) itself means to be in a state of abandonment, not being bound, able to go anywhere.

Almost all native Vietnamese speakers understand the word "tha rong" to mean letting someone go wherever they want, the opposite of "nhot" (keeping them in a cage, cage, not allowing them to move freely or act freely).

All the Vietnamese dictionaries we have in our hands published from before 1945 until now (in both the South and the North), such as the Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoi Khai Tri Tien Duc); Vietnamese Dictionary (Le Van Duc); New Vietnamese Dictionary (Thanh Nghi); Vietnamese Dictionary (Hoang Phe, editor-in-chief) all agree to explain "rông" and "thả rong" with the above meaning, and give examples: Dogs running free, buffaloes and cows free, pigs free/roaming; chickens free,... In short, this is a word commonly used for animals that must be managed and kept in captivity but are let free to go wherever they want, and of course that comes with their vandalism and harassment.

However, in reality, the word “thả rong” is also used in quotation marks metaphorically, referring to women not wearing bras. That is, the breasts of women are not bound or restrained by anything, but are left in a state of “freedom” and “unleashing”. For example, “Does ‘thả rong’ help breasts become firmer?” (Thanh Nien Newspaper), The trend of tightening the waist and “freeing” the breasts is again on the rise (Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper), “Women who “let loose” are not good for the breasts” (Tien Phong Newspaper),... Even the article “French women are protected in their right to let their breasts loose in public” (Dan Tri Newspaper) does not include this word in “blink”. Thus, the word “thả rong” here no longer means “letting them go wherever they want”, but is used metaphorically, referring to freedom, unrestrainedness, and not being bound by anything in general.

Etymologically, “thả rong” is a Vietnamese word, in which both components have Chinese roots. With the word “thả” (another pronunciation variation is tha), which originates from the word xoa 赦, meaning to forgive, to let go, to release, to give freedom. Regarding the relationship X↔TH (xả↔thả/tha), we can also see it in many other cases such as: xuy 吹↔thòi (playing the flute); xuy 炊↔thòi (blowing, cooking); xu 臭↔thòi (stinking),...

As for the word rong/rong/nhông, which originates from a word with the character 容, with two pronunciations dung or dong, meaning to forgive, to tolerate, to allow existence without being punished. The relationship D↔R (dung/dong↔rong/nhong) can also be seen in many cases, such as di 夷↔rả (barbarian); di 遺↔ trôi (to fall back); dõn/dũng 蛹↔nhông (puppet, which is the pronunciation change dung/dong↔rông/nhông; hành rong/chây rong),...

Back to the statement of the Director of Department X: "...Every year the city increases hundreds of thousands of vehicles, if we keep letting them run wild like this, we will never be able to handle traffic congestion."

Perhaps the word “free range” was also used by him metaphorically. That is, the city did not have any policies to manage or restrict means of transport, but let them develop completely freely, as they wanted. Accordingly, based on the words of the quoted passage, in our opinion, what the director called “free range” refers to the freedom to develop and increase “means of transport”, not to “free range” of vehicle drivers.

However, as mentioned above, because “free range” is a word that is used to refer to the free, uncontrolled, and uncaged state of animals, when people want to use it in a different sense, in writing, they often put it in quotation marks to remind readers of the metaphorical meaning of the word. While in speech, it is very difficult to express rhetoric in speech. Therefore, in our opinion, the director of the department’s thoughtless use of the word “strong” caused a misunderstanding. Of course, this should also be seen as a lesson in being careful in using words, especially in speeches at an official conference or forum.

Hoang Trinh Son (Contributor)

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/tha-rong-tu-chu-den-nghia-238945.htm