ah pui

English

Etymology

Hokkien 阿肥 (a-pûi), from 阿 (a, “particle placed before names to express familiarity”) + 肥 (pûi, “fat”).

Pronunciation

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): /ˌɑː(˨) ˈpui(˨˦)/

Noun

ah pui (plural ah puis)

1. (Singapore, informal, chiefly derogatory) fatty (a fat person)
   • 1998 January 19, The Straits Times, Singapore:

     The comic duo [Wang Sha and Ye Feng] were Singapore’s own Laurel and Hardy, and their Ah Pui and Ah San (The Fat and the Thin) show was enjoyed by young and old alike.

   • 2009, Esther Rothblum, Sondra Solovay, The Fat Studies Reader, page 131:

     Melinda, diagnosed with anorexia and bulimia, remembered her uncle and aunt calling her “Ah Pui”- meaning “stupid, fat girl”.

   • 2014, Jolene Tan, A certain exposure:

     She treated the cries of “Ah pui ah!” and “Fatty bombom!” as cosmic background radiation, and learned to drift quietly into sharp imaginings when her classmates babbled in the impassably alien tones of Mandarin as though she was not there.

   • 2016 November 14, The New Paper, Singapore:

     Lim was also called Ah Pui ("fatty" in Hokkien) by his friends, encouraging him to do something about how others perceived him.

Anagrams

• hupia