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Hong Kong Code-mixing Dictionary

A contemporary Cantonese-English dictionary


183 results found

princess sickness

Definition: Derived from '公主病', this is a Kongish code-mixing term that refers to a female who acts like a princess all the time and possesses the worst possible qualities such as narcissism and materialism. It tends to associate with Hong Kong women and is quite stereotypical of '港女', the Kong girl.

Usage: E.g. 港男:Why are you scolding me like this? Do you have princess sickness? (你做咩喺度鬧我呀? 你係咪有公主病?)

Synonym: 公主病

Reference: https://www.cantonese.sheik.co.uk/dictionary/words/49823/

PUA

Definition: (verb) Originated from 'pick-up artist', this is a code-mixing term used by native Hong Kongers to refer to being emotionally manipulated by controlling behaviour of a person who is good at pick-up and chasing the opposite sex.

Usage: E.g. 作為女性 聽到Juliana咁講 都覺得幾心酸 究竟之前一齊過幾年嘅ex 係點對待佢 令到佢覺得自己咁卑微 仲要傻到幫對方諗藉口 怪自己有問題 講真唔理係咪節目效果 聽落似係被PUA過 (As a female hearing what Juliana had to say, I feel quite sad to know that she had an ex-boyfriend who treated her like this while spending several years together. He just made her feel like low status and stupid enough to help the other person think of excuses and to blame herself for the problems. Honestly, I don't care if it is the effect of the TV show, but it sounds like she was PUA'ed before.)

Synonym: 被精神操控

Reference: https://www.threads.com/share/BA2LSDyu6S/

pull a cow up the tree

Definition: Known as Kongish, this is a code-mixing phrase used by native Hong Kongers to describe strenuous tasks that are almost impossible to complete.

Usage: E.g. Getting my son to do homework is like pulling a cow up the tree!

Synonym: 拉牛上樹

Reference: https://www.localiiz.com/post/culture-local-stories-popular-cantonese-idioms

ready

Definition: A code-mixing term used by native Hong Kongers to refer to a person's mental state that is immediate for action without necessarily having done any preparation. When used in negation form 'not ready', it may mean that preparation is already done but the person is still not ready.

Usage: E.g. 如果一個女仔話鍾意你,但係未ready一齊,要我等,係咩意思 (If a girl says she likes you, but isn't ready to be together with you and asks you to wait, what does that mean?)

Synonym: 準備好

Reference: https://amp.lihkg.com/thread/3629688/page/1

rearrange table

Definition: A code-mixing phrase used by upper class Hong Kongers as a more elegant way of requesting to move participants of a guest dinner party to other tables because it can just be too tedious for the organiser to do.

Usage: E.g. 唔該,可唔可以rearrange table呀?我唔係咁鍾意呢張枱。(Excuse me, could you rearrange the tables? I don't really like this table.)

Synonym: 重新安排啲枱; 重新調位

rice bucket

Definition: Known as Kongish, this is a code-mixing term used by native Hong Kongers to describe someone who only knows how to eat rice and nothing else. ie. A useless person.

Usage: E.g. He is so useless like a rice bucket!

Synonym: 飯桶

Robert

Definition: Often used as an idiom, this is a code-mixing term that Hong Kongers use to refer to a stupid person. (For female version, see 'Lulu')

Usage: E.g. 唔好當我係Robert喎! (Stop treating me like a stupid person!)

role

Definition: A code-mixing term used by working class Hong Kongers to refer to a set of responsibilities and duties undertaken by a job position. At times, it may simply be a role that a person plays, but not one where much work is to be done.

Usage: E.g. 講廢role黎講,睇咗好耐一直覺得PM先最撚廢[sosad]十個有9個都唔知detail,又唔識domain野 ,解決問題又幫唔到手,同人講數因為唔熟啲野又講唔到咩好結果出黎 (Speaking of useless roles, I have observed for a long time and I always thought project manager is the most useless. It's like nine out of ten of them do not know the details or have domain knowledge. They also cannot solve problems or help others, and when they talk to people regarding issues they cannot reach any good results because they are not familiar with anything.)

Synonym: 工作角色; 職位

Reference: https://lihkg.com/thread/3844073/page/4

router

Definition: Also known as 'human router', this is a code-mixing term used by working class Hong Kongers to refer to an employee whose role is simply to help people communicate or transfer information from one to another, without providing much of a real value or asset to the company.

Usage: E.g. 成日話 developer 人難溝通。好多 project manager 溝通咪一樣麻麻地。講野又無 developer 咁直接 淨係識遊花園/做 router。人際關又唔係特別好 (It is often said that developers are difficult to communicate with. But in fact, many project managers communicate just as poorly, as they don't talk as directly as a developer, as they often beat around the bush and act like a router. Their interpersonal skills are also not particularly good.)

Synonym: 人類路由器

Reference: https://lihkg.com/thread/3844073/page/4

saranghae

Definition: Orginated from the Korean phrase 'saranghae' meaning 'I love you', this is a code-mixing term that native Hong Kongers use to refer to wasting someone's f***ing time.

Usage: E.g. 我好鍾意睇韓劇,但係有時我覺得D劇情幾saranghae。(I really like watching Korean drama, but sometimes the plot is quite a waste of f***ing time.)

Synonym: 嘥撚氣

Reference: https://www.edigest.hk/社會熱話/愛你嘥氣?-五個似廣東話的韓文-265/2/

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