suaku
English edit
Etymology edit
From Hokkien 山龜／山龟 (soaⁿ-ku, “mountain turtle”), from 山 (soaⁿ, “mountain”) + 龜／龟 (ku, “turtle”).
Noun edit
suaku (plural suakus)
- (Singapore, informal) Someone who is not well informed; a country bumpkin.
- 1986, “New Books”, in Asiaweek, volume 12, page 60:
- The suaku (literally "mountain tortoise" and figuratively "country bumpkin") sports a beer belly, fake brand-name apparel and oil-slick hair.
Adjective edit
suaku (comparative more suaku, superlative most suaku)
- (Singapore, informal) Not well informed; backward.
- 2003, Beng Huat Chua, Life is Not Complete Without Shopping: Consumption Culture in Singapore, →ISBN, page 88:
- Ah Lian are not simply lowly educated, they also have supposedly 'pre-modern' or sua-ku (hill tortoise, metaphor for 'backward') modes of behaviour.