Appendix:Glossary of Philippine English

Philippine English takes most of its vocabulary and spelling from American English, but contains numerous usages and words not used elsewhere. The English variety spoken in the Philippines, often simultaneously with local languages in normal conversation, also borrowed words and terminology from native languages and from Spanish (including calques and false friends). This page covers a non-exhaustive list of English words or senses specific to or unique to the Philippines. A few Philippine English words has been recognized in major English dictionaries like Merriam-Webster or Oxford English Dictionary.

Terms or usages specific or unique to the Philippines

• advance – of a clock ahead of the exact time.
• apartelle - apartment and hotel
• Asian utility vehicle, AUV — type of vehicle based on an SUV, and used for commercial
• baby collar — Peter Pan collar
• bed spacing – The use of a bedroom in a private r residence as temporary lodging.
• bed spacer
• bold – pornographic
  • bold film — pornographic film; softcore pornography
• boundary – commission paid by a bus or jeepney driver to a public transportation operator for taking passengers, or the excess collected fares taken as daily wage.
• brownout — blackout; power outage
• carabao English — broken English
• carnap — to steal or hijack a motor vehicle; to carjack. Coined as a blend of car and kidnap.
  • carnapping — carjacking
• comfort room, CR — restroom, toilet, or water closet
• commute - to travel by public transportation
• computer shop — Internet café. Apparently a result of a mistranslation of Tagalog kompyuteran or other equivalent words in other Philippine languages with kompyuter as root.
• course — degree program
• duster — a simple sundress, often worn at home
• Eid'l Adha – Eid al-Adha
• Eid'l Fitr – Eid al-Fitr
• elimination round – group stage of a sports tournament or regular season of a league
• endo — labor contracting system involving work within a specific period of time as specified in the contract, where the worker is laid off afterwards and is barred from being re-hired. Coined from end of contract.
• five-six, 5-6 – Moneylending scheme stereotypically associated with Punjabis.
• green - blue, obscene, risqué. From a literal translation of Spanish verde, in the same sense.
  • green joke - obscene joke, ribaldry. From a literal translation of Spanish chiste verde.
  • green-minded - having obscene thoughts
• guest relation officer, GRO – sex worker (dated term)
• gun-for-hire — contract killer
• guns, goons, and gold — The use of violence and power to influence elections and politics in general
• high blood — heavily angered
• inhibit – recuse
  • inhibition – recusal
• jeepney — type of share taxi, using vehicles derived from the design of the original U.S. Army jeep (Willys MB).
• jogging pants - track pants; sweatpants. Usually refers to the pants forming the physical education school uniform in Philippine schools.
• junkshop, junk shop — scrap dealer
• load - (noun) prepaid credits; (verb) to top up or recharge credits
• lone – at large (single congressional district)
• multicab — van-based vehicle similar to a jeepney, but smaller. Also a genericized trademark.
• nervous breakdown — culture-bound syndrome characterized by panic attacks and aggression, resembling the Hispanic ataque de nervios.
• owner, owner-type jeepney – A smaller, lighter version of the jeepney, similar to the original Jeep and its non-military derivative.
• padrino system — systemic corruption involving patronage and nepotism. Padrino is from Spanish, and an allusion to the compadrazgo system.
• pentel pen — marker, felt-tip pen
• promodizer — promo merchandiser. Coined as a blend
• red-tagging — red-baiting; malicious practice of accusing, branding or naming individuals or groups perceived to be left-leaning or not fully supportive of the government as communists, subversives or terrorists in an attempt to discredit or suppress them or their views.
• ref - refrigerator (clipping)
• rubber shoes — sneakers, running shoes, or trainers
• rugby — rubber cement. From a genericization of Rugby, a brand trademarked by the adhesive manufacturer Bostik.
  • rugby boy — young adolescent involved in illicit inhalation of rubber cement
• sari-sari store — small family-owned convenience store or corner store often found in residential communities.
• senatoriable — candidate for senator
• shabu — crystal methamphetamine; crystal meth; methamphetamine hydrochloride
• takatak boy — a peddler selling cigarettes and candies, especially in congested streets. Takatak is from a Tagalog onomatopoeia.
• toga – graduation gown
• tomboy — lesbian
• transient, transient home – homestay
• tricycle — auto rickshaw, usually a motorcycle with a covered sidecar. In some regions, they refer to pedicabs (cycle rickshaws) or motorcycle-based vehicles with a rear passenger compartment similar to a tuk-tuk
• trolley — makeshift human-powered handcar used to transport passengers or goods along railroad tracks. Called skate in Bicol.
• undersecretary – deputy or assistant secretary
• viand – side dish; rice topping
• videoke – karaoke, KTV. Coined as a blend of video and karaoke in the 1990s.
• warfreak, war freak — someone who likes to start a quarrel

Loanwords from local languages and Spanish

• balimbing – starfruit; (politics, pejorative) turncoat
• barangay — basic unit of administration. Formerly, but sometimes still called barrio (abbreviated as Bo.), especially by older speakers.
• carinderia — small food stall with some seating space
• estafa — (legal term) fraud
• habal-habal — motorcycle taxi
• rotunda — roundabout, traffic circle
• salvage (from Spanish salvaje, via salbahe in local languages) — summary execution, particularly one where the corpses of the victims are thrown onto open spaces
• ventosa — cupping therapy, particularly dry cupping
• yaya — nanny

Slang and colloquialisms

• adidas - chicken feet cooked and eaten as street food
• betamax - blocks of pig's blood cooked and eaten as street food
• birdie – penis (a pun on "bird" and Tagalog berde, as popularized by the song "Please Don't Touch My Birdie" by Parokya ni Edgar)
• extra service - happy ending, or erotic massage provided by a masseuse
• KKB - going Dutch or splitting the bill
• nosebleed — struggling to speak English with a fluent or native speaker
• OA – Overacting.
• pekpek shorts — extremely short shorts that expose the buttocks.