Tiếng Việt · Slang Attested

em chã

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In real, traceable use. Part of the curated seed collection; community review is coming.

Both English Tiếng Việt

Meaning · English

A pampered man-child — from cậu Phước, the overgrown spoiled toddler in Vũ Trọng Phụng’s 1936 satire «Số đỏ» whose only line is a simpering «em chã» (“I won’t!”); revived by meme culture for anyone babied far past the age for it.

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

người đàn ông bị nuông chiều

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: “not me!” (baby-talk refusal)

Where it’s used: More common Miền Bắc · Northern Vietnam

Examples

Ba mươi tuổi còn để mẹ gọt hoa quả tận miệng, đúng là em chã.Thirty years old and mom still peels his fruit — a true em chã.

Editorial example (batch 057)

Sources & notes

Found via hieuchua.com/define/Em%20Ch%C3%A3 (retrieved 2026-08-10; meaning reference only, definition original). Literary origin (Số đỏ, 1936) is standard reference material; hieuchua’s own gloss (“obese child”) reflects meme drift and was editorially corrected against the source novel.

Common questions

What does “em chã” mean?

Is “em chã” formal or informal?

em chã is generally informal.

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