Whoa — we mean, wah — now you can ask your ang moh friends where they’d like to lepak, and that’d be totally acceptable, ’cause these Singlish words have been added to the Oxford English Dictionary lexicon in its March 2016 update.
There are the basic English words like “blur” and “wet market”, as well as loanwords from Chinese and Malay like “ang moh” (literally meaning red hair, referring to a person of Western descent) and “shiok” (meaning cool or great) respectively. Also making appearances are quintessential Singlish words such as “wah” (used to express admiration, delight or surprise).
Of course, a few food-related entries have been thrown into the mix, including “teh tarik”, “char siu”, “chilli crab” and “sotong” (which can also mean a stereotypically stupid or ignorant person).
The OED said that while some of these words are also used in Malaysia and South-East Asia, certain ones are unique to Singapore, such as “sabo”, a shortened version of sabotage, and “HDB”, in reference to the public housing estates.
Check out the rest of the list here.
