Untranslatable
March 26th, 2005 | Published in general | 18 Comments
There is a Hokkien term that I’ve found to be most handy in describing my current disposition, yet for which I can find no alternative in any other language. It is the word nua.
In English, words which come close include terms such as “sloth”, “bum”, “idler”, “slacker”, and certainly “lazy”, but I’ve found them to be utterly inadequate. The Hokkien word nua on the other hand, encapsulates all those concepts of laziness and idling, but on a completely superior dimension. There is the element of “bumming until you turn to goo”, that this one word alone manages to convey. Think: not merely a couch potato, but mashed potato spread all over a couch. How powerful is the Hokkien dialect?
My parents will say, my goodness, you woke up at 4pm, it’s already 10 and you haven’t done anything, and haven’t even bathed.. how nua of you! People who have anything to do with my academic endeavours frequently lapse into swearing at me / about me in Hokkien, and of course the word nua is often invoked.
My exams are in two weeks, and I can feel it in my bones. This nua-ing effect taking hold.
March 26th, 2005 at 7:29 pm (#)
you’re brave. i remember my week 13s always pass in a haze. sleepless nights, caffeine-filled days with liberal shots of nicotine. and you have the time to nua?
March 26th, 2005 at 7:39 pm (#)
Intelligent but not sensible. Story of my life. :D
March 26th, 2005 at 7:54 pm (#)
well, that’s exactly what i found myself in, 2 weeks before the A levels, too. :) so there’s been precedence. hopefully precedence also dictates that everything turns out better than ok, despite.
March 26th, 2005 at 8:19 pm (#)
ahaha. i know exactly what you mean. i’ve been nua-ing so much i deserved to be shot.
March 26th, 2005 at 8:28 pm (#)
Amazing…the words of Popagandhi can change my perspective of the word “nua” to one with a “classy” meaning.
March 26th, 2005 at 8:34 pm (#)
Nua. Great. I think I found a one-word description of my past month.
March 26th, 2005 at 9:45 pm (#)
i haven’t heard that word in a long time. there was a time when it was always used on me, that was when i was mixing with ah bengs. imagine - ah bengs find me nua. lam nua in fact.
March 26th, 2005 at 11:02 pm (#)
I’m so nua I can’t even begin to descri…
March 27th, 2005 at 3:28 am (#)
My exam is next week and I’m still nua-ing away.
March 27th, 2005 at 6:17 am (#)
dear popagandhi,
more accurately, it’s “bumming till you turn to pus”. i believe nua literally translates to “to fester”.
March 27th, 2005 at 7:52 am (#)
when people say nua, i always think of saliva, which is the cantonese meaning of the word, afaik. i suppose if one was spaced out to a great degree, one would be drooling too, so it makes sense, and both nuas have that meaning for me.
March 27th, 2005 at 9:39 am (#)
gosh am i the only person from singapore who’s never heard of the word nua.
March 27th, 2005 at 3:07 pm (#)
sexdoll, ‘nua’ is a word that disregards social class and educational upbringing. it is a truly classless word all races and all peoples could use. “fester”, on the other hand.. it just reminds me of the addams family.
March 27th, 2005 at 3:28 pm (#)
I use nua a lot too. The other excellent Hokkien phrase is lak sek — nothing else quite captures the feeling of anticlimax/failure.
March 27th, 2005 at 3:28 pm (#)
Truly, ‘nua’ is an awesome term. You can add a ‘tang’ (worm) after it just for added nuaness. The term ‘nua tang’ is like ‘nua’, only even more so.
March 27th, 2005 at 4:18 pm (#)
i wasn’t aware of the usage of lak sek. isn’t that like, the loss of cololur, or something? esp. from clothes?
March 28th, 2005 at 11:55 am (#)
The other great thing about the nasal ‘nua’ is that you gotta wrinkle your nose and twist your face while saying it…
March 29th, 2005 at 8:20 am (#)
[...] ariety primates drinking endless kegs of beer while feebly scratching their loins. Insipid nuas.
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