The other day I bumped into a colleague, this Singapore boy, in the lift. By Singapore boy, I mean not only is he born and bred here, his proudest moments are his days in the NS. I know because I have spoken maybe about 10 lines to him in my life and he has already told me which 'platoon' he was from.
Out of courtesy, I attempted small talk so I asked him how his day has been.
"Wah, today damn shack man!!" he answered.
I have heard this phrase many many many times before, and someone once told me that it means that person is very tired. But how does"shack" equals tired?
So I spent the whole of the lift ride down thinking about the word "shack". A shack is a hut, right? Maybe he means to say he wants to crawl into a hut and sleep because he is tired? The other meaning of shack that I know is to go and live with someone without getting married e.g. 'shack up'. But doesn't make sense either. Or maybe shacking up with someone is a tiresome affair and he felt similarly tired?
OR maybe it could be "shag" instead of "shack". Shag means sex, right? He is tired like someone who just had too much sex? Or he is tired and all he wants to do is crawl into a shack and shag? The other meaning of shag is a mass of hair like a scruffy do - something like Chewbacca. He is tired because he is carrying a mop of hair around all day? What is it??!
I guess this is another one of those Singaporean thing I don't get. When I first moved here, I was invited for a dinner party. We were all sitting around waiting for food to be served. When the fish dish arrive, the host ask me not to be shy and go ahead and "whack" the fish first. I thought to myself that the fish is already dead and lying in front of me with its mouth agape, so why must I torture it somemore but thinking perhaps this is some funny ritual in Singapore that I am not aware of, I raise my chopsticks to beat the crap out of the fish when everyone start yelling at me:
Frou: But you ask me to whack the fish!!!!
Everyone: We ask you to eat the bloody thing!!!
Shag... Whack.... What the heck???
2 comments:
I've always thought of it as "shagged". Probably derived from the Brits?
http://www.londonslang.com/db/s/
shagged-out - to feel tired.
Ahhh.. perhaps! Clever you!
I'm surprised though. Coz Spore is not a very anglophilic society (despite being an ex-colony) and tp my knowledge, rarely adopt Bri slangs.
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