Where does “bao kiếm” come from?
bao kiếm (Vietnamese) comes from Vietnamese báo, from Chinese 豹, from Chinese 駁, from Proto-Sino-Tibetan *prawk — to be speckled, variegated, spotted.
bao kiếm (Vietnamese): scabbard
Ancestry of “bao kiếm”, step by step
bao kiếm traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.
via Vietnamese báo
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Vietnamese | báo | a leopard; a spotted panther; a jaguar or a snow... |
| 2 | Chinese | 豹 | — |
| 3 | Chinese | 駁 | — |
| 4 | Proto-Sino-Tibetan | *prawk | to be speckled, variegated, spotted |
via Vietnamese kiếm
| Step | Language | Word | Meaning |
|---|
| 1 | Vietnamese | kiếm | a sword; to seek, to search, to find |
| 2 | Vietnamese | tìm | to search, to seek, to look for; to find |
| 3 | Chinese | 尋 | — |