Where's the XO?

MISSING! REWARD FOR WHOEVER DISCOVERS WHERE THE XO WENT TO!

Today I had chicken rice at Boon Tong Kee!! hahahaha.

And so when I was eating, there this poster on the wall facing me which was promoting the XO sauce of the store. It looked like


Soon, my relatives noticed the poster as well and they began discussing whether there was XO (the liquor) in XO sauce since it was not included in the list of ingredients on the poster. My mom then pointed out that actually there is no XO liquor in the sauce itself. This made me a little curious because why is the sauce named the way it is then? Besides,having almost no culinary knowledge, I am not exactly familiar with such sauces.

Well, it turns out that she was right. There is no liquor in the sauce after all. After doing a search on Google, I was half amused to find a Wikipedia entry on XO sauce, which is really useful for me actually!

So why isn't there XO liquor in XO sauce although the name makes it sound as though there is?

To quote wikipedia..

"The name XO sauce comes from fine XO (extra-old) cognac, which is a popular Western liquor in Hong Kong and considered by many to be a chic product there. In addition the term XO is often used in the popular culture of Hong Kong to denote high quality, prestige, and luxury. In fact, XO sauce has been marketed in the same manner as the French liquor, using packaging of similar colour schemes."

Wikipedia is always helpful at times like this. ^^

Anyway, the mystery has been solved! The word XO was borrowed and used to name the sauce in order to present some kind of classy image for the sauce. Very interesting indeed. And the term XO sauce seems to be more related to the Chinese culture, since it originated from Hong Kong. Therefore, there is a possibility that non-Chinese might not have heard of it, or know what it means. Then again, not ALL Chinese may know what it means, or its background and origin. Though in multicultural Singapore, I think our fellow Singaporeans from other ethnic groups might have been exposed to XO sauce and even have some knowledge of it.

All this food talk is making me hungry. =/

Uniform group

Even though I may not look like it, I was once an NPCC (National Police Cadet Corps) member. Well, when I was in secondary school, I was trying to decide which co-curricular activity to join. And since a uniform group was something I have never had any experience of, I decided to join NPCC in the end. It turned out to be a rather enjoyable experience, though I must admit it was tough at times.

So here's the phrase to consider in this post. Uniform group! I would think it is a rather local thing. People who are not so aware of this type of CCA in Singapore might probably wonder what is a uniform group all about, or means.

A uniform group may mean to them a group which is uniform, or homogenous. In Singapore though, a uniform group can also be understood as a type of club or group, in which the members wear a uniform which is representative of their group, and carry out activities which cultivate self-discipline, leadership and teamwork, among others. There are many types of uniform groups indeed, and examples include the one I mentioned, plus National Cadet Corps, Boys Brigade, Girl Guides, St John's Ambulance, Red Cross and more.

I think this is a good example of how our understanding of the same phrase can differ due to the different cultural contexts that we are in. The same phrase holds different meanings to us because in the Singapore context, in this case, the term uniform group has been given a new meaning which may be seem natural to us but not something that people new to Singapore may understand when first encountering it. It is true because whenever I try to explain what kind of activities I participated in to my friends from overseas, I find a lot of difficulty in explaining about NPCC, such as what we do or what it means to be part of it. Probably also because there isn't such an activity group existing in their cultural contexts so it makes it more difficult for them to understand.

Just to show some results from Google after I typed uniform group as the search word..

Results from the web:


Filtered results to reflect searches from Singapore sites:


Results from the web show that uniform group seems to generate some kind of apparel related sites, while those from Singapore gave results which reflects our understanding of the term.


Cadets.. fall in!

The wheels of the bus go round and round

I was on the way home one day, and as usual I will have to take the bus (in addition to the train T.T). Along came a double decker bus. As I scanned my ezlink card and proceeded to walk further into the bus, I happened to glance at the sign which indicates the seating capacity of the bus.

The sign used upper saloon and lower saloon to refer to what I would call the upper deck and lower deck of the bus. Pondering about whether it was possible for the word saloon to mean deck, I snapped a shot of this while trying to look less suspicious at the same time. ;D

For me, saloon means car, the four wheeled type. If this is the meaning of saloon, then it would not really seem right to talk about upper 'car' or lower 'car'. So I explored the OALD, Merriam-Webster and OED to investigate the word saloon.

From the OALD,

sal•oon /slun/ noun
1 (also saloon car) (both BrE) (NAmE sedan) a car with four doors and a boot/trunk (= space at the back for carrying things) which is separated from the part where the driver and passengers sit: a five-seater family saloon

This sense of the word does not seem able to account for the meaning of the upper/lower levels of the bus. Instead, it refers more to the entire vehicle as a whole.

Next, from the Merriam-Webster,

sa·loon
3 British a : parlor car b : sedan 2a —called also saloon car

Hmm.. this seems similar to the previous dictionary entry in the OALD. Taking a look at the OED lastly,

saloon
4. a. A large cabin in a passenger-boat for the common use of passengers in general or for those paying first-class fares;thepassenger cabin of an aeroplane. Also quasi-advb. in to go (etc.) saloon.
b. In full saloon car or carriage: A railway carriage without compartments, furnished more or less luxuriously as a drawing-room or for a specific purpose, as dining, sleeping saloon. Also (U.S.) ‘the main room of a compartment-car or a small subdivision of a sleeping-car’ (Funk's Stand. Dict.).
c. A type of motor car with a closed body for four or more passengers. Cf.SEDAN 1c.

Well, the part in sense 4b which says that saloon could be the 'main room of a compartment-car' does kind of describe the upper and lower 'compartments' of a bus. But I could not find anything in the quotations which had similar meaning to the bus situation here.

Then, looking at the word deck this time, the Longman Dictionary showed the following result:

deck noun

2 ON A BUS, PLANE ETC one of the levels on a bus, plane etc

lower/upper etc deck

I managed to find a seat on the upper deck.

Eddie returned to the flight deck (=the part of an aircraft where the pilot sits).

➔ double-decker (1), single-decker

This fits the required meaning for description of the seating capacity. The OALD also displayed similar results.

deck
noun
2 one of the floors of a ship or a bus: the upper / lower / main deck of a ship We sat on the top deck of the bus. My cabin is on deck C.—see also double-decker, flight deck, single-decker

Therefore, I think it would more appropriate to use deck instead of saloon to refer to the upper and lower levels of the bus since saloon does not have any apparent connection to them.

Of mouse and mice

I don't think it's all that clear but it's apparent there's only a single line of words right at the top of the picture. The picture was taken from the NTU's ADM website. Click to enlarge. The keyword is underlined in red.

Well, I think we all know what that means. I would define it to be the action of placing your mouse over the image in order to trigger some kind of effect. It can be considered an IT word because you definitely wouldn't use that word elsewhere. In the first place, the word mouse is an item specifically related to the IT world.

As commonplace as the word mouseover may seem, its meaning is not reflected in dictionaries. Neither the OED, Merriam-Webster or OALD had entries for it. All of them only had a part of the entry on mouse to reflect this sense.

Such as the OALD, which states that a mouse is..
mouse /mas/ noun (pl. mice /mas/)
2 (pl. also mouses) (computing) a small device that is moved by hand across a surface to control the movement of the cursor on a computer screen: Click the left mouse button twice to highlight the program. Use the mouse to drag the icon to a new position. see cat

This got me wondering if it would be good to actually include the verb mouseover (or mouse over) into the sense of the word under the entry mouse. The sense of the word mouse would then not only include the explanation that it is a small device for computers, but also a particular and common way of using the mouse.

The Urban Dictionary has an entry for mouseover.

Mouse over
To use the mouse to move the screen cursor over a spot or area of the computer screen.

If the meaning of mouseover is being reflected in more major dictionaries, it might be helpful to people who have little knowledge about computers, or people who are just starting to learn some computer skills. Basically, to allow people whom the word mouseover does not make sense to to understand the meaning. The common usage of this word has made it no longer some kind of IT jargon, but a rather ordinary word. In that case, it might be useful to codify this usage into dictionaries. Though of course, there might be considerations such as the stability of the word.

A series of eyebrow raising events: Part 3

Part 3 is here!! But sadly, this is the last of the series. And in this post, I bring you the last eyebrow raising event. By the way, if you're confused, this is a series, though you don't exactly have to read them in order. Parts 1 and 2 can be found here and here respectively.

So, as I was scanning through this particular shop's advertisements, I came across another (the 3rd) word whose usage seemed fishy. To me at least.


RELISH this discount too!

The word relish caught my attention. From my understanding, relish has something to do with savoring or appreciating something, which could be the flavor of food, or a particular moment. But are we able to say 'relish a discount'? I'm not too sure.

Checking to see if my intuition was correct, I consulted Google as usual, and a few dictionaries. Google had no results showing relish being used with a discount, though it had 'relish an advantage'. Dictionaries also showed senses and usages which did not really match with the usage here.

For example, a particular sense of the word which seems to be rather close to the meaning that the advertisement wishes to convey as from the OED (I didn't take all the quotations)

relish, v.
4. a. trans. To take pleasure or delight in; to enjoy greatly. Also refl.
1921 J. GALSWORTHY To Let II. xi. 219, I wish I could make you a pink cream, Mr. Soames, like in the old days; you did so relish them.

1932 Theosophical Q. July 7 Satire that so relishes itself as to have lost all thought or memory of moral purpose. 1986 R. ANGELL Once more around Park (1991) 242 He pointed at Gary.., relishing the moment before he threw him out. 2004 Toronto Star (Nexis) 7 May D16, I suspect my friends notice I am relishing the meal a bit too muchnon-free-range chicken has never tasted so good.


It certainly doesn't look like the word relish can be used with discount. Though relish has the meaning of taking pleasure in something, enjoying seems more appropriate in this situation. Perhaps the store felt that using enjoy with discount was too 'common' a word? Still, enjoy would definitely be a better word choice.


I have come to the end of the series! The adventure ends here.. for now.

A series of eyebrow raising events: Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of the series. Part 1 can be found here.

If you guessed right, pruning is the target word for this post!

Pruning. The moment I encounter this word, I will immediately link it to do with trimming branches from plants in order for them to grow well. I think this is the first time that I see prune being used together with eyebrows.

In order to check whether prune could possibly apply to trimming of eyebrows, I did a search on the OED and also on Google. The matching sense of the verb prune used in this context is probably

prune, v.
2. fig. and in extended use.
a. trans. To cut back, trim, or reduce (anything); to remove something from (a person or thing); esp. to remove (something superfluous or undesirable); to rid of unnecessary or unwanted elements.
b. trans. To excise or remove (anything superfluous or undesirable). Also with away, off, and out.


If too much hair above the eye is a cause for worry and something apparently undesirable, then it seems alright to say pruning eyebrows since one is removing hair which one considers is in excess and is unnecessary.

And next, the results on Google seem to indicate that pruning of brows is something which is in real use by people.


All these health and beauty sites seem to be happily using the verb prune together with eyebrows. From the evidence so far, the usage of prune in this context seems legitimate. Plus, judging from the search results on Google, prune could very well be part of the lexis of beauty care or something related.

Though the usage of prune here is not something which is different, it changed my understanding of the word. Now I know that prune can also be primed to mean trimming of brows, in this case. I have learned something new indeed.


Stay tuned for the next part in the series!

A series of eyebrow raising events: Part 1

Hello all. This is the beginning of a mini series which I will be writing on. It so happened that I made a number of discoveries which are related to one another hence I decided to make them into a series. This is part 1.

BROW RESURRECTION.


The word resurrection jumped out at me immediately. I'm not sure about the rest of you guys but resurrection makes me think of something along the lines of something which was dead/completely ruined and then came back to life.

Making some reference to the Longman and OED..

res‧ur‧rec‧tion
formal a situation in which something old or forgotten returns or becomes important again:
a resurrection of old jealousies

res‧ur‧rect
to bring back an old activity, belief, idea etc that has not existed for a long time:
The Home Office have resurrected plans to build a new prison just outside London.
another failed attempt to resurrect his career

resurrection, n.
3. Revival or revitalization, esp. of a person who or thing which has fallen into inactivity, disuse, or obscurity; an instance of this.


Hmm, I would say that resurrection is an interesting choice of word in this case because though the verb resurrect allows for things (not just people) to be revived, eyebrows don't exactly die do they? What the advertisement probably meant was unshaped eyebrows. So unshaped eyebrows are a total ruin because they have not been maintained and kept in a nice condition, and hence they need to be resurrected?

Still, comparing the usage in the advertisement to the definitions from the dictionary, it does not really fit. Eyebrows are not something which have been forgotten (how do you forget them?!), it is not an old activity, belief, idea etc that has not existed for a long time, nor is it a thing which has fallen into inactivity, disuse, or obscurity (imagine not moving your eyebrows at all, gasp). Therefore, it seems a little strange to talk about resurrecting them.

Eyebrows coming back to life. Scary much?

Stay tuned for the next part..!

Don't you dare..

....to play punk with me!!


Now what in the world would that mean? I guess non-locals might feel rather bewildered upon hearing this. Before revealing what this actually means, let us see what it would possibly mean in the standard English.

Well, the word punk, after checking out the dictionary, has a large number of associations and social images, some of which I never knew and was pretty shocked to find out. But if the word punk occurs with play, one might link it to something to do with playing of punk music, for example.

5. a. =

PUNK ROCK n. Also: the subculture or style associated with such music.

b. A performer or fan of punk rock; a person who adopts the style or attitude associated with punk rock.
(from the OED)

Google results also show that play punk is associated more with punk music.


However, the meaning that the phrase has in the Singapore context is totally different. To play punk refers to the action of trying to be funny and purposely not being cooperative with the other person. The Singlish Dictionary offers a useful definition for this phrase.

play punk /pung(k), pʌŋ(k)/ v. phr. [(?)] 1 Play the fool. 2 Aggravate, irritate, provoke. 3 Stymie, sabotage; refuse to co-operate.
1 1994 C.S. Chong NS: An Air-Level Story 64 He warned us that we would do better than to chiak chua and ‘play punk’ behind his back. 2 2002 The Coxford English Dictionary 86 play punk. To provoke, irritate or aggravate. I told you not to do it, you still go and do. Don’t come and play punk with me, ah, I tell you first! 2004 Colin Goh The Sunday Times (LifeStyle), 1 August, L16 Restaurants play punk all the time!

I don't think that this usage of the phrase will ever enter the major dictionaries. Its usage is too limited and cultural specific. Once again, we see how the same phrase can actually possess different meanings when placed in various cultural contexts. People will also have different primings of the phrase.

Care for something petit?

Yikes. I can be seen in the photo. > < Here's the line in case it can't be seen clearly~ "Enjoy any sliced cake or 3 petit desserts with your choice of coffee, tea or soft drink"


Did anyone get it? It's the use of the word petit which got my attention. Sure, petit is a synonym of small but petit dessert? I wouldn't have thought of that. And for a moment I thought it read petite. I would tend to think of petite as being used to describe the small size of a woman. In fact, I went to check out the cafe's website online and it seems that they use petite to describe their desserts as well.

Sources such as the Merriam-Webster, OED and Wiktionary stated that petit was the masculine form of the French adjective for small while petite was the feminine version. So I guess they are interchangeable to some extent.

From the OED:

petit, adj. and n.
A. adj.
1. Of small size, small; little. Formerly also (occas.):small in number, few; = PETTY adj. 3 (obs.).

petite, adj. and n.
2. More generally: small, little.


I thought that this was interesting since I wouldn't exactly link petit as an adjective to desserts. But after checking out Google, it seems that petit is used rather often together with desserts, especially petite. There were things like petite cheesecakes and petite sweets.

I wonder if this could be part of the lexis of desserts, for example. Just a thought.

Switch off.. the lights?

I do not have any pictures this time round. Instead, I happened to recall a phrase that I often hear my friends saying, which gave me the idea of penning it down in this blog.

In this entry, I am going to consider the usage of the phrase switch off. A very common phrase. Doesn't look like there's anything special about it. BUT there is actually a very different priming of the phrase when local Singaporeans (or at least most of them) encounter this phrase.

The standard meaning of to switch off would probably be to turn off a certain power source, which the Dictionary.com defines as

Switch-off
the act or process of switching off a power supply, light source, appliance, etc.

It is kind of interesting that they are using the phrase switch off to explain the phrase itself though. = ="' Ok let's use the definition by the OED instead.

Switch-off
The turning off of an (electrical) power supply, television set, etc., by means of a switch.

As I mentioned earlier, some Singaporeans might have a different/additional priming of this phrase which is not standard. Instead of trying to phrase it myself, I have found an entry on it in the Singlish dictionary.


switch off v. & a. [Eng.] A v. Cease to be concerned about, stop putting effort into. B a. Also switched off. Of a job, work, etc.: requiring little effort or skill, easy, relaxed. Compare Senang. 2 Indifferent, not bothered, not caring. Compare Bo Chap.

¶ Opp. of switch on, switched on.
A 1985 Michael Chiang Army Daze 51 Switch off. To not bother at all. B 1 1994 C.S. Chong NS: An Air-Level Story 46 He actually aspired to the ultimate switch-off job – clerk, but his asthma excuse failed him. 58 I told my PC in the last interview to recommend me for a switch-off place. 67 Half the platoon were committed to this ‘switch-off’ sergeant. 84 Went for switch-off attachments. 2 1978 Leong Choon Cheong Youth in the Army 313 switched off. The opposite of ‘switched on’. A soldier who does not care anymore; does what he has to do and nothing more; will not bother himself. This is a common phenomenon with the soldiers whose RODs are approaching. An ‘ROD mood’ is a switched off, euphoric time.

Thus, we can observe here that a Singaporean will probably have a different understanding of the phrase switch off by knowing that it could also mean to be unconcerned about something. When encountered, this phrase would trigger both the standard and non-standard meaning, though depending on the context, only one will be triggered since the two meanings are very different.

What happened to you! You've got panda eyes!

The message that the advertisement intended to convey got through to me at once. Panda eyes, to me, refers to a person who suffers from lack of sleep or fatigue so much so that he has got dark circles under his eyes. Hence resembling a panda in some sense.

This is not an uncommon word being used in Singapore only. I took a look at Google to get an idea of how widespread the use of this phrase is, and it seems rather commonplace and not restricted to a certain location. However, while the OED has recorded similar usages of the word panda in descriptions like panda car and panda crossing, it does not have panda eyes.

From the OED:
panda, n.¹

3. In extended use, with reference to the black-and-white markings of a giant panda.
a. In the U.K.: a type of pedestrian crossing distinguished by black-and-white chevrons marked on the road, and having traffic warning lights activated by people wishing to cross. More fully panda crossing.
b. Brit. colloq. More fully panda car. A police patrol car having a broad white stripe painted on a dark background. Also attrib.



And so I was wondering.. should dictionary entries of panda include the usage of panda eyes? Well, the urban dictionary has an entry for panda eyes.

Panda eyes
1. Someone who has had a lack of sleep, resulting in dark circles under their eyes.
2. Obtained from sitting in the sun whilst wearing sun glasses. The sun glasses protect the eye socket area from the sun, whilst tanning the uncovered parts of the face. This results in an unbalanced tan, "Panda Eyes"
3. Work-a-holic. Someone who has a lack of sleep from working too much.


The American dictionaries don't seem to have anything on panda eyes though. Perhaps it is less used in American contexts?

Accelerate your future with us

It's the season again! What am I talking about? It's the time when all local tertiary institutions start their promotion and getting students to join their institutions through organising open houses and whatnot. Recently I have really been seeing such posters everywhere. Including NUS's of course.

Anyway, moving on to the word of the day~ it is the word accelerate! I thought it was rather unusual to use accelerate along with future. Random images began appearing in my mind as to how the future could be accelerated. It sounded a little like future was a solid block X on wheels and it could be made to go faster by.. erm maybe something like a mini turbo engine, in this case MDIS?


Okay let's just refer to the OED definitions to start off.

accelerate, v.
1. trans. a. To quicken, or add to the speed of (a motion or process).
b. To quicken (anything) in motion or process. To increase the speed of (a railway train, motor-car, motor-engine, etc.); also absol. (cf. sense 3).
2. a. To hasten the occurrence of (an event); to bring it nearer, by quickening intervening processes, or by shortening the interval.
3. intr. To add to one's speed, to increase in speed, or become swifter.

And an additional sense:

trans. Educ. (orig. and chiefly N. Amer.). To advance (a student or group of students) through a course of study more rapidly than is usual, esp. because of exceptional ability. Also intr. (of a student, etc.): to make comparatively rapid progress in this way.


I omitted some senses which are not so relevant to the current discussion. Well, looking through the senses, 2a seems to be the most adequate in describing the situation we have here. The quotations provided by the OED are not that current though. I wonder why.

Just to list one quotation,
1662 FULLER Worthies (1840) III. 68 Change of air and diet..are conceived to have accelerated his death.


This does makes things clearer. So basically accelerate can be used to describe bring a certain event X closer, by fast-forwarding the middle components and reaching the goal, as it were. Then again, event X in the OED quotations are things which are rather clear, such as death, departure, day. (why do they happen to begin with D?)

But taking event X to be the future is rather vague? I mean, what does the future mean? It could be 3.5 seconds later, 4 days later or even 10 years later. In fact, with every millisecond, we are advancing into the future. So what does it really mean to accelerate the future..?

Yes I get the idea that the message is trying to say something along the lines of "You can get the future that you wished for faster by joining us". By the way, Google has more than 9 million search results for 'accelerate the future'. Not all consist of the exact phrase though.


However, somehow I feel that 'accelerating into the future' sounds more appropriate.

Just my thoughts. Feel free to disagree. =p

And as we march into the new age

The above is a flyer which I got while walking around the campus. Click on it to enlarge.

It's basically a flyer promoting the NUSChoir who are having their 30th anniversary concert. Scanning through the description on the flyer, something caugh my attention. The last line reads "...the NUSChoir continues to embark on its journey of diverse and challenging choral music".


Now embark is a rather common word to use alongside journey. However, what caught my eye was the use of continue together with embark. To me, embark has the meaning of starting something new, challenging and possibly unexplored as of yet. If it is the start of something, how could you possibly continue to start on something? Once you start on something, it's finished in the sense that it has already begun. There isn't a way to continue to start on something.

Then I thought perhaps the line was trying to convey the message of the Choir committing themselves to continue exploring new paths. But in the flyer, only 'one journey' is being mentioned. This makes the line sound a little weird since if there is only a single journey, then once you embark on it, where does the continuity part come in? If there were multiple journeys then it might be possible to embark on new journeys each time.


Checking out the Longman Dictionary:

embark on/upon something
to start something, especially something new, difficult or exciting


Alright so this probably means that embark was used in a slightly inappropriate context here. In this case, I guess leaving out the word embark should do the trick.. so that the sentence will read "...the NUSChoir continues on its journey of diverse and challenging choral music".


That sounds better to me. And it seems more logical since their journey started 30 years ago. So they should be continuing on their path, overcoming more challenges. Ok that was a digression.


Over and out.