dabao
English
Etymology
From Chinese Mandarin 打包 (daa3 baau1, “to pack and unpack”).
Pronunciation
- (Singapore) IPA(key): [ˌtɑ(ː)˧ˈpaʊ]
Verb
dabao (usually invariable)
- (Singapore) Alternative form of tapao.
- 2008 July 30, Joseph Heng, “pre-departure food outing (yay!)”, in Hopkins4U[2], retrieved 28 October 2018:
- xiaoyang: though one thing - can we move the place to bedok instead? all the famous hawker food in katong kind of close at night, but bedok block 85 bak chor mee + sambal stingray + orh luah + aboling only open at night. anyone strongly objects to that? Joseph Heng: tapao something for me?
- 2013 June 4, NY5 2013[3] (Usenet):
- This isn't meant to shame people, just to kind of remind them (and the audience) that sometimes, little things like take-aways from the canteen aren't always necessary, and that by not da-baoing for a change, we can make a positive contribution to the environment (decreasing the demand for logging/deforestation for paper!).
Usage notes
Common in spoken and written colloquial Singapore English (Singlish), and among people of Chinese heritage in Malaysia and Brunei; uncommon in formal speech or discourse.