hiền

Sino-Vietnamese word from 賢 (“wise; virtuous”). According to Nguyễn Quốc Hùng's Hán Việt tân từ điển (“New Sino-Vietnamese Dictionary”):

The semantic bleaching from "wise/virtuous" to "mild" probably comes from expressions relating to wifehood and motherhood, such as Chinese 賢母／贤母 (“wise mother”) > Vietnamese mẹ hiền (“kind mother”). Compare phrases such as Chinese 賢妻良母／贤妻良母 (hiền thê lương mẫu, “a wise wife and a good mother”) and Japanese 良妻賢母 (ryōsai kenbo, lương thê hiền mẫu, “a good wife and a wise mother”). This term has compounded with other words and morphemes which did not suffer this kind of semantic bleaching, such as lành (from Chinese 良 (lương)) in hiền lành, and Chinese 慈 (từ) in hiền từ.

• (Hà Nội) IPA^(key): [hiən˨˩]
• (Huế) IPA^(key): [hiəŋ˦˩]
• (Hồ Chí Minh City) IPA^(key): [hiəŋ˨˩]
• Homophone: Hiền

hiền

1. (archaic) wise, virtuous and respectable

   người hiền ― a person of virtue

   • 1909, Luo Guanzhong, translated by Phan Kế Bính, Tam quốc diễn nghĩa [Romance of the Three Kingdoms]:

     Nghe tiếng ngài yêu người hiền, trọng kẻ sĩ, nên tôi cũng đến yết kiến.

     I came to see you for I have heard of your reputable love and respect for the wise and learned.

2. (of people, especially women) good-natured

   mẹ/vợ/dâu hiền

   a good mother/wife/daughter-in-law

3. gentle; meek; mild; mild-mannered

   Synonym: lành

   hiền như nai (tơ) ― as gentle as a fawn

   hiền như ma xơ ― as gentle as a nun.

   Đừng lo, thằng đó hiền lắm.

   Don't worry, he's not the violent type.

4. (Southern Vietnam) innocuous; harmless; nutritious
5. (Southern Vietnam, euphemistic) ingenuous to a fault

   Em hiền quá à! Vậy thì sao có bồ được?

   You're too ingenuous! How would you ever get a girlfriend?