揸兜

Chinese

		to hold in the hand; to grasp	flat or shallow container; flat or shallow bowl
trad. (揸兜)		揸	兜
simp. #(揸兜)		揸	兜
Literally: “to hold the (beggar's) bowl”.

Etymology

"to fail in a subject in HKCEE, HKALE or HKDSE"

From the resemblance of the letter U to a bowl. U is short for English unclassified as written on the results notice.

Pronunciation

• Cantonese (Jyutping): zaa¹ dau¹

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• Cantonese
  • (Standard Cantonese, Guangzhou–Hong Kong)⁺
    • Jyutping: zaa¹ dau¹
    • Yale: jā dāu
    • Cantonese Pinyin: dzaa¹ dau¹
    • Guangdong Romanization: za¹ deo¹
    • Sinological IPA ^(key): /t͡saː⁵⁵ tɐu̯⁵⁵/

Verb

揸⫽兜 (verb-object)

1. (Cantonese) to beg

   個個揸住個兜 [Cantonese, trad.]
   个个揸住个兜 [Cantonese, simp.]

   go³ go³ zaa¹ zyu⁶ go³ dau¹ [Jyutping]

   Everyone is begging (humorous rewritten lyrics for God Save the Queen)

2. (Hong Kong Cantonese, slang) to fail in a subject in HKCEE, HKALE or HKDSE

Synonyms

• (beg for food): (Cantonese) 乞食 (hat¹ sik⁶)