綠衣

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Chinese

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green
gown; clothes; to dress
gown; clothes; to dress; to wear
 
trad. (綠衣)
simp. (绿衣) 绿

Pronunciation

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This entry needs pronunciation information. If you are familiar with the IPA then please add some!
Particularly: “Taishanese”

Noun

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綠衣

  1. (historical, Hong Kong and overseas Cantonese, including American (–1980), Australia) policeman; (American (–1980) Cantonese) immigration official
    ABCD,大頭綠衣追賊BB [Cantonese, trad.]
    ABCD,大头绿衣追贼BB [Cantonese, simp.]
    ei1 bi1 si1 di1, daai6 tau4 luk6 ji1, zeoi1 caak6 m4 dou3-2, ceoi1 bi1 bi1! [Jyutping]
    A-B-C-D, policeman in a turban; when he can't catch the criminal, he blows his whistle!
    • 1861 October 13 (辛酉九月初十日), 帖告, 恩開甯三邑公所
      綠衣捉送衙門 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
      绿衣捉送衙门 [Classical Chinese, simp.]
      zik1 giu3 luk6 ji1 zoeng1 can4 mui4 ji6 sing3 jan4 loeng5 go3 zuk1 sung3 ngaa4 mun4 [Jyutping]
      (please add an English translation of this usage example)
    • 1907, James Dyer Ball, Cantonese Made Easy[1]:
      差人差役綠衣?」 [Cantonese, trad.]
      差人差役绿衣?」 [Cantonese, simp.]
      “caai1 jan4 (caai1 jik6, luk6 ji1) dou3 maa5?” [Jyutping]
      "Has the policeman arrived?"
    • 2021, Myron Louie Lee, quoting Hazel Louie Lee, “Portland's Louie Chung (1876–1926)”, in Oregon Historical Quarterly (overall work in English), →DOI:
      " [] There, on the corner, that's where the luk yee [police] station was!"
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 1999, Sarah Glasscock, Read-Aloud Plays: Immigration[2] (overall work in English):
      Once you convince the luk yi that you are my son and they let you into America, then you can go back to being who you really are.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
    • 2014, Gregory Jue, quoting Dr. Thomas Wu, “In Search of Ng Ping”, in Chinese America: History and Perspectives[3] (overall work in English):
      The law at that time was to bar Chinese from coming and if there's any way that they can bar Chinese they would do it. Liver fluke worm is one thing, alleged paper is another thing, and then people talk about luk yee. Well, what is luk yee? Those are the immigration officials that come to arrest Chinese and after the luk yee come, we don't see the Chinese person anymore. That's why we always call, "Luk yee! Luk yee!" It's not because of police department. It's the immigration officials that wears the green garments and come to arrest us. Those are the luk yee … Those are the disclosures we used when we were young.
      (please add an English translation of this quotation)
  2. postman
  3. This term needs a translation to English. Please help out and add a translation, then remove the text {{rfdef}}.

Synonyms

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Derived terms

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References

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  • Lorraine Dong, Marlon K. Hom (1980) “Chinatown Chinese: The San Francisco Dialect”, in Amerasia[4]:For instance, 綠衣绿衣 (lǜyī) (CC) luhk-yi is a policeman in America, but to a person from Hong Kong or Taiwan, it would be a postman.
  • Frank Chin (1998) Bulletproof Buddhists and Other Essays[5]:And luk yee for policeman is from Hong Kong because the police there wear green, right?