Kiasu..

'Kiasu' Added to Oxford English Dictionary!
Posted on Tuesday, April 03, 2007
Topic: Community Announcements

Quietly, and just like a Singaporean citizen, the humble Singlish word 'kiasu' migrated from its original home in the Coxford Singlish Dictionary to the pages of the Oxford English Dictionary - alongside other words like 'wiki' and 'ta-da'.

Check it out here at the OED's quarterly update site.
Hidden within the list of new entries somewhere 3/4 down the page (use the search function in your browser) is the word "kiasu" - n and adj. You can also do a 'search' on the OED's main page.

Which means that the word is now officially English too and we should be able to use it everywhere in our media with impunity.

Take that, you colonized, potato-eating monkeys of the Speak Good English Movement! Hopefully this isn't a belated April Fool's joke... if so, we'll be damn lau kwee. But then, it'd also be a cool prank! Either way, it puts a smile on our face.

For those of you hiding under a rock for the past 40-plus years, here's what 'kiasu' means (according to our very own Coxford):

KIASU (kee-ah-soo)
Hokkien adjective literally meaning, "afraid of losing". A highly pejorative description beloved of Singaporeans. Possibly our defining national characteristic. The nearest English equivalent is "dog in a manger", though even that is pretty mild in comparison.
"You went to get a handicapped sticker just to chope a parking space? How kiasu can you get?"

Thanks to Xuan You for pointing this out to us। Well done!

© http://www.TalkingCock.com 2001-2003। All rights reserved.

What's Next?