redirected from
o
* Singlish is a largely spoken creole, and as such descriptivism (recording forms that reflect actual pronunciation in spoken language, or as appearing in the linguistic corpus) is more pertinent than strict prescriptivism. Nevertheless, the use of more standard forms (or for words originating in languages with Latin script, such as Malay, accurate to the original spelling) is recommended and encouraged.
also can:
or oh -o
O
→
Teochew:
乌
烏
peng'im:
ou1
+
Hainanese / hokkien:
乌
烏
hrs/poj:
ɔu1/o͘
definitions
adjective
- (drink ordering) black; without milk
She will come in the morning, about 9 am, and drink a cup of teh-o and have some food. Sometimes she will go the the salon at the end of the block to do her hair.
— 2014, Sarah Ooi (quoting Lee Tong Lai). All for the Money: Bribery, Cheats, Swindles and Other Monetary Fraud in Singapore. Marshall Cavendish International (Asia) Private Limited. ISBN: 9789814634731
But the woman at Toast Box gave her a look of disdain when she had asked for black tea, so she stuck with teh-o. Sometimes she would order teh-o-kosong, but she refused to drink teh.
— 2019, Carissa Foo. If It Were Up to Mrs Dada. Epigram Books. ISBN: 9789814785990
usage notes
The pronunciation /oː/ (‘oh’, as in the letter O) is from Teochew, and retroactively also the English reading. The less common pronunciation /ɔː/ (‘or’, like the o in order) is from Hainanese and Hokkien.
This term has ordinal priority 1, meaning it always comes after the name of the base drink itself.