mâu thuẫn (Vietnamese)

Where does "mâu thuẫn" come from?

The Vietnamese word 'mâu thuẫn' is a Sino-Vietnamese term derived from the Middle Chinese phrase for 'lance' and 'shield'. This ancient compound reflects an old parable about a merchant selling both an impenetrable shield and a spear capable of piercing anything, illustrating the inherent paradox when these two ideas meet. It eventually entered Vietnamese through both ancient loanwords and modern Japanese influence, where it evolved to mean contradiction or conflict.

Full etymology tree

• mâu thuẫn (Vietnamese), 'contradiction; conflict'
  • inherited 矛盾 (Middle Chinese)
    • compound 矛 (Middle Chinese)
    • compound 盾 (Middle Chinese)

Ancestors

• 矛盾 (Japanese)

Updated June 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris