by Ronald Constantino
The content of Highspeed today is courtesy of Jose “Pete” F. Lacaba. In particular his column, Showbiz Lengua, in the December 2017 issue of Yes! mag.
Thanks Pete, and here is Showbiz Lengua en toto.
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EARLY LAST OCTOBER, Kapuso actor Ruru Madrid posted, in his Instagram account, a photo of himself without a shirt on and with his pecs and abs in full display. The IG photo – which showed his “Jaw-dropping transformation from payatot to hottie, “according to the headline of the GMAnetwork.com online slide show (October 3,2017) – immediately went viral, earning 35,900 likes and 513 comments as of October 14.
Among the early comments was this one from Kapamilya teen actor Paul Salas: “Petmalu si lodi.”
If you’re a senior-citizen like El Lenguador, you may have been baffled back in early October by Paul’s comment. But by now you probably know that Paul meant. He was employing reverse slang and was actually saying: “Malupit si Idol.”
Let’s get one thing clear, Malupit, according to Filipino-English dictionaries, literally means cruel or brutal. But even back in the 20th century, if senior-citizen memory serves, people would say, “Ang lupit mo pare,” or Lupit mo tsong,” or “Lupit mo, tsong-go,” by which they meant, depending on the context and the situation, either “You’re terrific, chum,” or “You’re terrible pal.”
Okay, back to petmalu and lodi.
They’re part of a new batch of Pinoy slang terms apparently coined by millennials and spreading on social media. They’re mostly reverse slang, where you reverse the arrangement of a word’s letters (from idol to lodi) or it’s syllables (from malupit to pitmalu or petmalu).
Here’s the list – with definitions, synonyms, and examples – of some reverse-slang terms new to El Lenguador, who got them from listicles posted on the Pinoy websites fhm.com.ph, pop. inquirer.net, abante-tonite.com, life.typist.ph ,and tagaloglang.com.
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LODI : someone you look up to like a real idol; someone who has done something impressive.
WERPA : (from pawer, Taglish for power) used to express support, approval, or encouragement. Example: “More werpa sa inyo!”
ORB/orbski (from bro,short for brother): a male friend.
REPA (from pare, short for kumpare): also a male friend. An earlier reverse-slang version reversed the letters rather than the syllables: erap, which if capitalized refers to former actor, former President, and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada, another earlier term used repa with an additional syllables: repapips.
ERP (from p’re.short for the already shortened from pare) : again, a male friend.
REMA (from mare,short for kumare): a female friend. Example: “Erp! Musta na si rema?”
GOBAS (from sabog): drunk; with a hangover.
Incidentally, according to cnnphilippine.com, there’s now a Pinoy equivalent of the term reverse slang, courtesy of University of the Philippines linguistic professor Jay-ar Igno : tadbalik.
And by the way, in “Me, Starzan,” his tula-kulom in Philippine Star, actor and Eat Bulaga! host Joey de Leon has coined a jokey generic term for slang : Kanto-nese or Kantonese, street-corner language.
More on this in the next issue. Pramis! Or should I say: Mespra?
(Pete is author,poet,and scriptwriter (“Sister Stella L,” “Jaguar,” among a few others). He also freely translates in Filipino the lyrics of English songs. Pete is the executive editor of Yes!, whose editor in chief is Jo-Ann Q. Maglipon.)