gweilo

English

Alternative forms

• gwailo, kwailo

Etymology

From Cantonese 鬼佬 (gwai² lou²), from 鬼 (gwai², “ghost”) + 佬 (lou², “guy, man”).

Noun

gweilo (plural gweilos or gweilo)

1. (colloquial, ethnic slur) A white person in China, (particularly) a man; a ‘foreign devil’.
   • 1977, John Le Carré, The Honourable Schoolboy, Folio Society, published 2010, page 179:

     She had ruffled the bed and laid a frilly nightdress on the floor because so far as the block was concerned Phoebe was the half-kwailo bastard who whored with the fat foreign devil.

Usage notes

Some expatriates in Hong Kong now reclaim the word to jokingly refer to themselves.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:white person

Related terms

• laowai
• gweipo