jialat

English

Alternative forms

• chialat

Etymology

Borrowed from Hokkien 食力 (chia̍h-la̍t, “to be exhausting”), with spelling influenced by Mandarin Pinyin.

Pronunciation

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): /ˌt͡sjɑːˈlɑt/, /ˌt͡ʃj-/, [ˌt͡s˭jɑ(ː)˨ˈlɑt̚˦], [ˌt͡ɕ˭j-]

Adjective

jialat (comparative more jialat, superlative most jialat)

1. (Singlish, Manglish, original sense, now less common) Sapping of one’s strength; tiresome.
   • 1997 October 19, Thye Hoon Lin, “Singapore Ties to Heroin Traffickers: News Release”, in soc.culture.malaysia (Usenet):

     wah lao...... jialat ahhhh you.

   • 2015 December 17, Kelly Tay Soon Weilun, “The Singapore economy, colloquially speaking”, in Business Times, →OCLC:

     None of the economists polled expect the economy to contract - be it a technical recession or a real recession - and hit the alamak and jialat ranges.

2. (Singlish, Manglish, by extension) Terrible, disastrous; (of a person) troubled, in a dire situation.
   • 2019 March 2, Lyn Chan, “When an emergency hits, will you know what to do?”, in Today‎^[1]:

     According to his doctors, every minute he had remained unconscious would have added to his life being in danger. "If it were 10 minutes... jialat (terrible)!" he said.

   • 2020 January 14, Justin Vanderstraaten, quoting Moon, “Drugs, Cash, and Prison. When Does Enough Become Enough?”, in ricemedia.co‎^[2], archived from the original on 26 February 2024:

     Seeing my Dad in that state was a huge shock. I was like ‘eh what the fuck! What’s wrong with you?!’ […] ‘Lucky I didn’t die, boy!’ he told me. Jialat sia.