鳩嗚

Chinese edit

		without reason; frivolously; carelessly	(onomat. for humming)
trad. (鳩嗚)		鳩	嗚
simp. (鸠呜)		鸠	呜

Wikipedia has articles on:

鳩嗚 (Cantonese)
gau wu (English)

Etymology edit

From Mandarin 購物／购物 (gòuwù, “shopping”), from an Internet meme in 2014. During a news report, an anti-Occupy Central protester was asked why she was at the protest. She forgot how to say “shopping” in Cantonese and replied with gòuwù, exposing her identity as a Mainlander.

Pronunciation edit

Cantonese (Jyutping): gau¹ wu¹

Cantonese
- (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
  - Jyutping: gau¹ wu¹
  - Yale: gāu wū
  - Cantonese Pinyin: gau¹ wu¹
  - Guangdong Romanization: geo¹ wu¹
  - Sinological IPA ^(key): /kɐu̯⁵⁵ wuː⁵⁵/

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Verb edit

鳩嗚 (Hong Kong Cantonese, neologism)

(humorous) to go shopping
to talk nonsense; to shout frivolously

Synonyms edit

(to go shopping):

濕平／湿平 (Cantonese)
瞎拼 (xiāpīn) (slang)
血拼 (xuèpīn) (slang)
購物／购物 (gòuwù)