của

Etymology
For similar grammaticalisations, compare,.

The usage of this word as possessive marker is recent, as even texts as late as early 19th century show của being used exclusively as a noun meaning "belongings, property".

There is no clear evidence if this is a non-Sino-Vietnamese reading of (SV: ) or  (SV: ), neither of which is straightforwardly connectable to the Vietnamese word.

Noun

 * 1) property; belongings
 * 2) given kind of food
 * 3)  such trash; such a good-for-nothing
 * 1) given kind of food
 * 2)  such trash; such a good-for-nothing

Preposition

 * 1) of (belonging to or associated with)

Usage notes

 * Possession is not required to be explicitly marked. For example,, , , are all acceptable and commonly used. However, when there is an adjective or classifier accompanying the noun (phrase), của is almost always present:  (with  being an adjective; compare the synonymous phrase  without , which can be analyzed as  + , consisting of a compound noun and a simple noun, without any modifier).