up what spring
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Partial calque of Cantonese 噏乜春 (ngap1 mat1 ceon1, “what the hell are you babbling about”, literally “what testicles are you babbling about”), where 春 (ceon1) is a homograph meaning both “testicles” and “spring (season)”. By surface analysis, Cantonese up + what + spring.
Phrase
[edit]- (Hong Kong, colloquial, slightly vulgar) What the hell are you saying?
- 2017, 港語日報 [KONGISH DAILY] (overall work in Cantonese), →ISBN:
- 相反,好諷刺地,一句Grammar全對嘅句子,有時反而唔知佢Up what spring,例如日文偽文青廢Up系列:「在非洲,每隔一分鐘,就有六十秒過去⋯⋯」