sengkek

Malay

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Hokkien 新客 (sin-kheeh / sin-kheh, “newcomer”, literally “new guest”), a term used to refer to relatively new Chinese arrivals in Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia (as opposed to Peranakan) around the 1800s to 1900s, as compound of 新 (sin, “new; recently”) +‎ 客 (kheh, “guest”). Compare Indonesian singkek, Tagalog singki.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /səŋˈkək/, [səŋˈkəʔ]
  • Hyphenation: séng‧kék

Noun

séngkék (Jawi spelling سيڠکيق, plural sengkek-sengkek, informal 1st possessive sengkekku, 2nd possessive sengkekmu, 3rd possessive sengkeknya)

  1. newcomer pure ethnic Chinese (as opposed to a Peranakan)
    Synonym: totok
  2. (vulgar, offensive) asshole; son of a bitch; poor
  3. (archaic) a contracted coolie fresh from China

Hypernyms

Further reading
  • “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)‎, volume 2, Mytilene (Greece): Salavopoulos and Kinderlis Art - Printers, pages 477-478
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