sengkek
Malay
editAlternative forms
editEtymology
editBorrowed from Hokkien 新客 (sin-kheeh / sin-kheh, “newcomer”, literally “new guest”), a term used to refer to relatively new Chinese arrivals in British Malaya, Straits Settlements, Dutch East Indies (as opposed to Peranakan) around the 19th century, as a compound of 新 (sin, “new; recently”) + 客 (kheh, “guest”). Compare Indonesian singkek, Tagalog singki.
Pronunciation
editNoun
editséngkék (Jawi spelling سيڠکيق, plural sengkek-sengkek, informal 1st possessive sengkekku, 2nd possessive sengkekmu, 3rd possessive sengkeknya)
- newcomer pure ethnic Chinese (as opposed to a Peranakan)
- Synonym: totok
- (vulgar, offensive) asshole; son of a bitch; poor
- (archaic) a contracted coolie fresh from China
Hypernyms
editFurther reading
edit- “sengkek” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.
- Wilkinson, Richard James (1932) A Malay-English dictionary (Romanised)[1], volume 2, Mytilene (Greece): Salavopoulos and Kinderlis Art - Printers, pages 477-478