công cốc

Vietnamese

Etymology

From công (“labor”) +‎ cốc (“cormorant”).

In some places, fishermen used to tie a snare near the base of the cormorants' throat and let them catch fish. Since the ring prevented them from swallowing the fish, the fishermen would take all of their catch i.e. the cormorants' hard labor was all for nothing.[1][2]

Pronunciation

  • (Hà Nội) IPA(key): [kəwŋ͡m˧˧ kəwk͡p̚˧˦]
  • (Huế) IPA(key): [kəwŋ͡m˧˧ kəwk͡p̚˦˧˥]
  • (Saigon) IPA(key): [kəwŋ͡m˧˧ kəwk͡p̚˦˥]

Noun

công cốc

  1. (informal, idiomatic) something that one has put a lot of effort into but yields no real result

References

  1. ^ Lê Minh Quốc. Công cốc
  2. ^ Nguyễn Xuân Quang Giải phẩu tiếng Việt
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