ponteng
English
Etymology
Unadapted borrowing from Malay ponteng.
Verb
ponteng (third-person singular simple present pontengs, present participle pontenging, simple past and past participle pontenged)
- (Singlish, Manglish) To skip (school or work); play truant.
- 1978, Adibah Amin, As I was Passing, volume 2, page 197:
- […] she rushed up to me at the end shouting: "Hei you came! Did you ponteng work?"
I do not advocated "pontenging" of course but I do strongly recommend one primary school sports meet at least for each parent and soon.
- Quoted in 2009, Rosaly Puthucheary, Different Voices: The Singaporean/Malaysian Novel (page 124)
- But that was the best place to spend the day if you pontenged school. It was so cool and quiet.
Derived terms
Malay
Etymology
Probably from Hokkien 奔騰 / 奔腾 (phun-thêng).[1]
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈponteŋ/ [ˈpon̪.t̪eŋ]
- Rhymes: -onteŋ, -teŋ, -eŋ
- Hyphenation: pon‧teng
Verb
ponténg (Jawi spelling ڤونتيڠ, active memonteng, 3rd person passive diponteng)
- (transitive) To cheat; to swindle.
- (informal, transitive) To ditch or skip work, school and so on; to skive.
Compounds
- kaki ponteng (“avid skiver”)
References
- ^ Hamilton, A. W. (1924). Chinese Loan-Words in Malay. Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2(1 (90)), 55. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41559569
Further reading
- "ponteng" in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu (PRPM) [Malay Literary Reference Centre (PRPM)] (in Malay), Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017