Thai word for "busybody"

[ratcatcher]

My wife frequently uses this word " wunwai" to describe someone who is a nuisance, meddling or being a busybody, pest.

I don't think it is a rude word, maybe slang?   My friend's Thai wife has never heard it. 

Perhaps someone would be kind enough to give me the spelling in Thai script and English.

Thank you. 

[JAG]

A Prayut ?

[KhunBENQ]

Might be this:

 

thai2english:

วุ่นวาย          wûn waai         be troublesome ; be bothersome

 

thailanguage.com:

[is] chaotic; turbulent; disorganized; confused

 

Google: chaotic, turbulent...

 

Listen:

http://www.clickthai-online.de/cgi-bin/playmp3.pl?327975

Edited July 27, 2018 by KhunBENQ

[ezzra]

Tty 'yoong yakk'... someone who's a busybody, a medler, a disturbance to others...

[tgeezer]

My wife frequently uses this word " wunwai" to describe someone who is a nuisance, meddling or being a busybody, pest.
I don't think it is a rude word, maybe slang?   My friend's Thai wife has never heard it. 
Perhaps someone would be kind enough to give me the spelling in Thai script and English.
Thank you. 

As stated already the word is วุ่นวาย. Your wife's life is made วุ่นวาย . วุ่น is being busy, so the person referred to upsets your wife's tranquility, makes life difficult.
The Thai definition of วุ่นวาย says เกิดความไม่สลบ (create a state of 'not sa'ngob' )and เอาเป็นธุระมากเกินไป bring about a situation of too much to do.
sa'ngob = peace .
Your friend's wife was probably misheard the word because it is very unlikely that she as never heard of it.


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[ratcatcher]

28 minutes ago, tgeezer said:

As stated already the word is วุ่นวาย. Your wife's life is made วุ่นวาย . วุ่น is being busy, so the person referred to upsets your wife's tranquility, makes life difficult.
The Thai definition of วุ่นวาย says เกิดความไม่สลบ (create a state of 'not sa'ngob' )and เอาเป็นธุระมากเกินไป bring about a situation of too much to do.
sa'ngob = peace .
Your friend's wife was probably misheard the word because it is very unlikely that she as never heard of it.
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Yes, thank indeed for that good explanation, and my friend did not say the word correctly to his wife, so she did not understand. Some very useful info.      

[johng]

I though busybody could be a  " Kon seuk"    who made your life " wunwai"  with their meddling.

 

เสือก

[V] be nosy, See also: pry, snoop, poke, stick one's nose into someone's else's affairs/business, Syn. ทะลึ่ง, สอด, Example: ไอ้บ้า ! กำลังฝันว่าเหาะอยู่ทีเดียว เสือกปลุกขึ้นมาได้, Thai definition: แสดงกิริยาหรือวาจาอันไม่สมควรในเรื่องที่มิใช่ธุระของตัว หรือในเวลาที่เขาไม่ต้องการ

Edited July 27, 2018 by johng

[tgeezer]

I guess that is a good way of putting it.
From my 2525 edition of the RID, the spoken way of putting it is เสือกกะโลก with a very similar definition to yours for เสือก. What I am not sure of is, does เสือก still retain its meaning or has it lost that?
I feel that Thai likes to shorten compound words when the context is known especially. Analogous to Poke your nose in being shortened to poke until eventually poke loses its individual meaning.


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[DavidHouston]

"เจ้ากี้เจ้าการ" - busybody, meddler

Sample sentence:
 

"ถ้าเธอขืนทำเป็นเจ้ากี้เจ้าการก็จะถูกตำรวจสงสัย"
If you insist on sticking your nose in other people's business, the police will become suspicious of you.
 

And, here is the dictionary definition:

เจ้ากี้เจ้าการ - น. ผู้ที่ชอบเข้าไปวุ่นในธุระของคนอื่นซึ่งมิใช่หน้าที่ของตนจนน่ารำคาญ.

(Note the interface with the word "วุ่น")
 

Edited July 31, 2018 by DavidHouston

[Maradona 10]

Sounds like a real blast in your household.

[bannork]

เสือก is an apt but very strong word. Best used out of earshot of the intended target.

[Briggsy]

13 minutes ago, bannork said:

เสือก is an apt but very strong word. Best used out of earshot of the intended target.

bannork is correct. This is the word that your average Thai villager would use. WARNING : Don't use this word.

The toned down version is คนสอดรู้สอดเห็น This will still mildly offend.

 

It sounds like your wife is using the non-confrontational approach describing the situation or her routine rather than insulting others. วุ่นวาย is usually used to mean busy (in a negative way), stressfully busy.

[bannork]

วุ่นวาย incidentally is often used to describe Bangkok and its chaos.

[tgeezer]

"เจ้ากี้เจ้าการ" - busybody, meddler

Sample sentence:
 
"ถ้าเธอขืนทำเป็นเจ้ากี้เจ้าการก็จะถูกตำรวจสงสัย"
If you insist on sticking your nose in other people's business, the police will become suspicious of you.
 
And, here is the dictionary definition:

เจ้ากี้เจ้าการ - น. ผู้ที่ชอบเข้าไปวุ่นในธุระของคนอื่นซึ่งมิใช่หน้าที่ของตนจนน่ารำคาญ.
(Note the interface with the word "วุ่น")
 

Can anyone think of a reason that the police would take an interest in or be suspicious of a busybody?


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[tgeezer]

วุ่นวาย incidentally is often used to describe Bangkok and its chaos.

That’s interesting, I get the impression that a city can’t be วุ่นวาย although it does appear in a translation of ‘chaotic’ in one of Longdo’s offerings. ;วุ่นวายไร้ระเบียบ
This topic is a good example of English words changing Thai language. If วุ่นวาย means chaotic which can be applied to both people and things but more normally, to people, shouldn’t we try to find out if it does mean chaotic?
As I and others have said, often we have to look at what the words mean in Thai and not accept an English word lifted from translations.
For example, สุ่นวาย is one word but another which springs to mind is หนวกหู sometimes translated as noisy when it doesn’t mean that in the same way as it does in English, it refers to the effect that the noise has on us or our ears.
I suppose what I am trying to find out is, should dictionaries give so many words from which to choose or better should they tell us what a word means? I hardly consider the English equivalent words but know that Thai learners of English do, so feel that I am at odds with them and with posters here but not so much with Thai people who don’t know English. Perhaps there is a third language which I need to accept, a mixture of Thai and English.

[bannork]

25 minutes ago, tgeezer said:

That’s interesting, I get the impression that a city can’t be วุ่นวาย although it does appear in a translation of ‘chaotic’ in one of Longdo’s offerings. ;วุ่นวายไร้ระเบียบ
This topic is a good example of English words changing Thai language. If วุ่นวาย means chaotic which can be applied to both people and things but more normally, to people, shouldn’t we try to find out if it does mean chaotic?
As I and others have said, often we have to look at what the words mean in Thai and not accept an English word lifted from translations.
For example, สุ่นวาย is one word but another which springs to mind is หนวกหู sometimes translated as noisy when it doesn’t mean that in the same way as it does in English, it refers to the effect that the noise has on us or our ears.
I suppose what I am trying to find out is, should dictionaries give so many words from which to choose or better should they tell us what a word means? I hardly consider the English equivalent words but know that Thai learners of English do, so feel that I am at odds with them and with posters here but not so much with Thai people who don’t know English. Perhaps there is a third language which I need to accept, a mixture of Thai and English.

You just need to listen to which words Thais use to describe certain situations. วุ่นวาย is used so often to describe Bangkok life- see the enclosed link.

http://oknation.nationtv.tv/blog/sakonpat1

As for  หนวกหู well หนวก means deaf, cannot hear, so หูหนวก is just an extension i.e the ear cannot hear, one is deaf, so หนวกหู can be seen as meaning deafens the ear, i.e. noisy, deafening.

[tgeezer]

It depends on what one understands chaotic to mean. Since we are told to look at the picture where people and vehicles are where they should be and everything is working as best as it can in the circumstances chaos in its truest sense doesn’t apply. The writer could be thinking of วุ่นวาย as one ข้อเสีย affecting the lives of the inhabitants making their life less than pleasant rather than disorderly, in the same way as the OPs wife felt.
เมืองที่’เต็มไปด้วย’วัตถุ เป็นความเจริญที่’เต็มไปด้วย’ความวุ่นวาย. A town which is too full of things is development which is too full of (สิ่ง)เกิดความไม่สงบ






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[Tchooptip]

On 8/5/2018 at 3:32 PM, tgeezer said:

It depends on what one understands chaotic to mean. Since we are told to look at the picture where people and vehicles are where they should be and everything is working as best as it can in the circumstances chaos in its truest sense doesn’t apply. The writer could be thinking of วุ่นวาย as one ข้อเสีย affecting the lives of the inhabitants making their life less than pleasant rather than disorderly, in the same way as the OPs wife felt.
เมืองที่’เต็มไปด้วย’วัตถุ เป็นความเจริญที่’เต็มไปด้วย’ความวุ่นวาย. A town which is too full of things is development which is too full of (สิ่ง)เกิดความไม่สงบ






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1

I have this example, chaotic seems to be used, is used more generally and not only like for the noisy Bangkok:

ไม่แน่ใจว่าหลังการเลือกตั้งบ้านเมืองจะวุ่นวายหรือไม่ ไม่แน่ใจว่าจะเกิดอะไรขึ้น

"It is very uncertain whether our country will become chaotic after the election; we are uncertain as to what might occur."

 

[tgeezer]

If you choose to say chaos then it works. What about this expression?

แม่หย่ามาวุ่นวาย

Or the situation which is the topic of this post?

 

 

[bannork]

7 hours ago, tgeezer said:

If you choose to say chaos then it works. What about this expression?

แม่หย่ามาวุ่นวาย

Or the situation which is the topic of this post?

 

 

I would suggest วุ่นวาย as a verb above,  can mean interfere, stick your nose in, muddy the waters, cause trouble, disturb the peace and quiet, etc and as a noun it can mean disturbance, unrest, chaos

วุ่นวาย

1. เอาเป็นธุระมากเกินไป

   เขาชอบเข้าไปวุ่นวายกับเรื่องของคนอื่น- He likes to meddle in other people's business

   ไม่ต้องเตรียมอะไรมากหรอก อย่าวุ่นวายไปเลย  don't bother preparing too much, don't get in a state/too concerned about it

2. ไม่สงบ

   บ้านเมืองวุ่นวายเกิดจลาจลไปทุกหนทุกแห่ง  the instability/unrest of the nation led to riots everywhere

คำนาม

วุ่นวาย

1. ความไม่สงบ

   เกิดวุ่นวายไปทั่วบ้านทั่วเมือง caused chaos/unrest/instability throughout the country

 

[tgeezer]

I think that I have been reading the dictionary backwards all these years! I should read the example first. I think that the word has an application which is revealed in the example. In the definition ธุระ is something belonging to one and เอาเป็นธุระ means that you are assuming too much The example; กับเรื่องของคนอืน reveals that is is somebody else’s business.
The second definition is an intransitive use of the verb meaning ไม่มีสงบ so วุ่นวาย can describe บ้านเมือง
When the syntax denotes that วุ่นวาย is a noun then it is the noun of the intransitive role of the verb. I guess that you could say การวุ่นวาย in which case it would make the noun intrusion.
In the case of the OPs wife, if she is calling someone วุ่นวาย there is no syntax so it could mean that she feels that her peace and quiet is affected or that the subject is being meddlesome.
อย่ามาวุ่นวาย I would go for, don’t meddle.
By now I think that anybody who has followed this thread has there own very good idea of what วุ่นวาย means rendering most of my thoughts redundant but that is how it should be.



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[tgeezer]

Sorry wrong noun, doing วุ่นวาย would be intruding. Tut tut, their not there; schoolboy error!


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[digbeth]

here's another one for you

จุ้นจ้าน

 

จุ้น

[tgeezer]

ไม่จุ้นจ้าน is one definiion of สงบ I came across it looking up วุ่นวาย too.
จุ้นจ้าน ก. เขาไปยุ่งเกี่ยวในสถานที่หรือในเรื่องที่ไม่ใข่หน้าที่ของตัวจนน่าเกลียด (Going in getting involved in a place or affair which is not your duty to the point of being unacceptable) is the definition in my 2525 RID and it's the same in longdo probably because there is no English equivalent word the meaning hasn't changed!
Because of หน้าที่ I think that It looks like วุ่นวาย but interfering in official things, workplace or officials.
I feel that จุ่นจ้าน might apply to เจ่ากี้เจาการ which David posted because it involved ตำรวจ .
The thing is that the dictionary can only reflect how most people use the words and to be sure of what a word means is to see it used. Do you have an example?


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[tgeezer]

Update, I must have misread Longdo, ‘meddle’is there and an example.
เขาคงไม่สบายใจที่อ้ายหมีควายมาจุ้นจ้านอยู่ใก้ลๆเช่นนี้
For those of us who are put off by the number of words, you only need to know to identify each. There are two protagonists เขา and อ้าย -male, and หมีควาย is a type of bear, a big one I suppose, this is a disparaging way to refer to a person so ‘oaf’ might work. He is doing จุ้นจ้าน close to เขา, เช่นนี้ in this manner.
How do you translate คง? Probably/Understandably/normal for him, does it matter?
Could the example be closer to the สถานที่ part of the definition because of ใกล้ๆ ?
Do people use จุ้นจ้าน for barging in, could อ้ายหมีควาย be a ‘bull in a china shop?
These are all things worth pondering without becoming too don’t prescriptive.


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[tgeezer]

Grown ups use จุ้นจ้าน with children apparently. อย่ามาจุ้นจ้านแถวนี้
So I was not far off.


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