sengkek

Malay

Alternative forms

• singkek
• singke
• singkeh

Etymology

Borrowed from Hokkien 新客 (sin-kheeh / sin-kheh, “newcomer”, literally “new guest”), a term used to refer to relatively new Chinese arrivals in British Malaya, Straits Settlements, Dutch East Indies (as opposed to Peranakan) around the 19th century, as a compound of 新 (sin, “new; recently”) +‎ 客 (kheh, “guest”). Compare Indonesian singkek, Tagalog singki.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈsəŋkək/ [ˈsəŋ.kəʔ]
• Hyphenation: séng‧kék

Noun

séngkék (Jawi spelling سيڠکيق, plural sengkek-sengkek, informal 1st possessive sengkekku, 2nd possessive sengkekmu, 3rd possessive sengkeknya)

1. newcomer pure ethnic Chinese (as opposed to a Peranakan)

   Synonym: totok

2. (vulgar, offensive) asshole; son of a bitch; poor
3. (archaic) a contracted coolie fresh from China

Hypernyms

• Cina
• Tionghoa

Further reading

• “sengkek” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.
• Wilkinson, Richard James (1932) A Malay-English dictionary (Romanised)‎^[1], volume 2, Mytilene (Greece): Salavopoulos and Kinderlis Art - Printers, pages 477-478