cơm ăn đủ đầu mắm
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
Earn just enough to get by
Literally: rice to eat and enough fish sauce for the head
Examples
Gia đình anh chỉ kiếm được cơm ăn đủ đầu mắm.His family only earns just enough to get by.
AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)
Sources & notes
Discovered via Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918; public domain, via vi.wikisource); retrieved 2026-08-01. Source: source ↗ Attested in Nam ngạn chích cẩm (Phạm Quang Sán, 1918). Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-08-01; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “cơm ăn đủ đầu mắm” mean?
Earn just enough to get by Literally: rice to eat and enough fish sauce for the head
Is “cơm ăn đủ đầu mắm” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.