Monday, January 30, 2006

Filipino American word of the day: "sipit"




Noun, singular. Stress the first syllable (si-pit).

I think in American English you call them "tongs," however for us filipino kids the word "tongs" is indistinguishable from "thongs" and "tongues."

So when your uncle yells something like "Go get a tongs!" it amounts to a cruel guessing game of what your uncle was thinking. Do I reach for my mouth? Run to the kitchen? Point to my shoe? Uncle is making me uncomfortable. Look down, don't burst into tears.

So "sipit." It's a perfectly transparent word, everybody knows what it means, everybody's happy. It helps that it's a cute word, and that it rhymes with pipit. Most importantly, it's a word that's associated with grilling.

Ok! So if you read this post, please leave a comment, using the word sipit in a sentence. And no, you don't get any points for "Anak, go get a sipit."

4 comments:

Delia Christina said...

one day, ding was bored.
so she put her sipit in her pipit.

hee!

jp 吉平 said...

BASTOOOOOOOS!

Anonymous said...

If you sipit slowly, you won't choke.

Do we pass just by completing the exercise?

ye olde serial catowner

Micaela said...

I bought a sipit the other day, and it came in handy when I had to turn my beef. HA! it's not funny, is it? sorry :(