Makaw

Tagalog

Alternative forms

• Macao
• Macau

Etymology

Borrowed from Spanish Macao, from Portuguese Macau, from Hokkien. See more at Portuguese Macau. Compare Spanish Macán, Japanese 媽港(マカオ) (makao), Latin Machao.

The “Macau Chinese” sense is an ellipsis of Spanish chino macao (“Macau Chinese”).

The “good cook” sense is due to the renown of fine cooks or chefs who usually specialized in cooking pancit noodles in panciteria restaurants across Spanish Philippines during the 1800s, especially in Manila and Iloilo, such as Pancitería Macanista de Buen Gusto located by San Fernando Bridge in Binondo, Manila, mentioned by Jose Rizal in El Filibusterismo (1891), who were historically usually Cantonese-speaking ethnic Chinese people from Macau or Canton (historically usually Guangzhou) and their descendants, as per Manuel (1948) and Galang (2022).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /maˈkaw/ [mɐˈxaʊ̯]
• Rhymes: -aw
• Syllabification: Ma‧kaw

Proper noun

Makáw (Baybayin spelling ᜋᜃᜏ᜔)

1. Macau (a city, special administrative region, and peninsula in China, west of Hong Kong)
   • 1998, Mariano Ponce, Jaime Carlos de Veyra, Efemérides filipinas:

     Sa pagkakawalay ng Portugal sa korona ng España noong 1640 ay napasama rin ang Goa, Molukas, Makaw, atbp. Ang mga iyon ay itinuturing ng mga pag-aaring Portugés, bago naisanib ang kahariang ito sa Imperyong Kastila noong 1580.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

Noun

Makáw (Baybayin spelling ᜋᜃᜏ᜔)

1. Macau Chinese; Chinese Macanese (an ethnic Chinese person from Macau)
2. (by extension) Cantonese (a Cantonese-speaking ethnic Chinese person who transited from Macau, and may also possibly be from Canton (Guangzhou or Guangdong province in general) or Hong Kong)
3. (by extension) a good cook

Derived terms

• lumpiyang makaw
• lutong makaw

Related terms

• Fukien
• Intsik
• makan

Further reading

• Manuel, E. Arsenio (1948) Chinese elements in the Tagalog language: with some indication of Chinese influence on other Philippine languages and cultures and an excursion into Austronesian linguistics, Manila: Filipiniana Publications, page 40
• Galang, Jely A. (2022) “Los Chinos Macanistas: The Cantonese Chinese in the Spanish Philippines, 1778-1898”, in Chinese Studies Journal‎^[1], volume 16, Philippine Association for Chinese Studies, pages 40-70

Anagrams

• kamaw