Cuội

Nguyễn Đổng Chi stated that Cuội, the man sitting under a tree in the Moon, had been a different folkloric person than Cuội, the habitually lying man or boy; yet those two eventually merged into one, becoming a habitually lying man or boy sitting under a tree in the Moon.^[1]

According to Nguyễn Hùng Vĩ:

• The Man in the Moon's name Cuội is related to Vietnamese cội (“roots”) and element cối (from Proto-Vietic *koːjʔ (“plant; vegetation”) and fossilized in cây cối);^[2]
• The folkloric habitual liar's name Cuội is a non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of Chinese 拐 (“to abduct; to misappropriate”, SV: quải);^[2]
  • Vĩ also notes that the folkloric habitual liar's proper name once became a generic noun denoting a habitual liar, recorded as «quội» in Alexandre de Rhodes's Dictionarium Annamiticum Lusitanum et Latinum;^[3][2]
  • He also critiques many lexicographers like Pierre Pigneau de Behaine, Gustave Hue, Georges Cordier, J. F. M. Génibrel, Huỳnh Tịnh Của, and Trương Vĩnh Ký for mistakenly glossing «cuội» as "echo".^[2]
• Neither is related to cuội (“pebble”).^[2]

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [kuəj˧˨ʔ]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [kuj˨˩ʔ]
• (Saigon) IPA^(key): [kuj˨˩˨]
• Homophone: cuội

Cuội

1. (folklore) a man sitting under a tree in the moon (inspired by a lunar pareidolia)
2. (folklore) a habitually lying man or boy
3. (folklore) a habitually lying man or boy sitting under a tree in the moon
   • Nam Giao cổ kim lý hạng ca dao chú giải (《南交古金里巷歌謠註解》 "Past & Present Folk-ballads from the Hamlets and Alleyways of Jiao[zhi] in the South - Annotated "), folio 162a

     侩(Cuội)𦖑(nghe)𧡊(thấy)呐(nói)儈(Cuội)唭(cười)
     𪽝(Bởi)𫨩(hay)呐(nói)𠲝(dối)沛(phải)𡎢(ngồi)挹(ấp)𣘃(cây)

     Hearing that, Cuội smiled.
     For lying so often, he must sit hugging the tree.

Cuội

1. (humorous) to backtrack(Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?)