Where does “phải chăng” come from?

phải chăng (Vietnamese) comes from Vietnamese phải, from Chinese 派, from English Pi, from Ancient Greek πῖ, from Ancient Greek πεῖ, from Proto-Semitic pay- — the mouth.

phải chăng (Vietnamese): reasonable; sensible; moderate

Definitions

  1. reasonable; sensible; moderate

Ancestry of “phải chăng”, step by step

phải chăng traces back through two separate lines of ancestry.

via Vietnamese phải

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Vietnamesephảiright; correct; obverse
2Chinese
3EnglishPiThe sixteenth letter of the Classical and Modern Greek alphabets and the seventeenth in Old Greek
4Ancient GreekπῖAlternative form of πεῖ
5Ancient Greekπεῖpi, the name for the sixteenth letter Π, π of the...
6Proto-Semiticpay-the mouth

via Vietnamese chăng

StepLanguageWordMeaning
1Vietnamesechăngnot any, not even
Every word from Proto-Semitic pay-
phải chăng — Etymology, Origin & Word History | Etymology Explorer