Author’s Note
The inclusion of Tagalog and Pilipino words is largely of nouns for which there is no single or simple English equivalent and which would otherwise call for a laborious explanation in mid-paragraph. A good example is the word yamas, grated coconut from which two lots of coconut milk (and hence most of the oil) have been squeezed for use in cooking and which is then given to pigs and chickens.
A few Tagalog words, cogon, for example, occur throughout the text spelled with a ‘c’. In Tagalog the letter ‘c’ does not exist and ‘k’ is used instead, taking its place in the alphabetical order. However, certain words are often spelled with a ‘c’ even in the Philippines and since they are commonly recognised by Westerners I leave them in this less authentic version. I have also left a few other words of Spanish origin such as ‘barrio’ in their original form.
ABAKA: abaca, Manila hemp
AMPALAYA: a bitter cucumber (Momordica balsamina). Like many other bitter foods (endive, dark chocolate, coffee, grapefruit) it is delicious. In this province it is also called ‘marigoso’ partly from the Filipino habit of reversing the order of letters and syllables – for the Spanish knew it as ‘amargoso’ – but no doubt also from some pious confusion
ANISADO: an anise-flavoured spirit
ANTING-ANTING: amulet, fetish, lucky charm
BABOY DAMU: a quite useful timber tree, Artocarpus incisa
BABOY DAMU: wild pig
BAKLÂ: an effeminate man, hence homosexual
BAHALA NA: a nearly untranslatable phrase so frequently used it has claims to be the national motto. In the present context it expresses something like ‘with any luck’ or ‘trust in fate’ or ‘it’s in the lap of the gods’
BANGKA: a long, narrow boat with outriggers. It is the basic boat design of the archipelago and comes in sizes ranging from single-seater to thirty-metre inter-island craft
BANTAY: a guard or watchman. ‘Bantay salakay’ is a favourite adage, meaning ‘the guard invades’ and embodying the same irony as the rhetorical Latin question Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?
BANTOL: the venomous stone-fish, although the word is often used indiscriminately for the other camouflaged members of the same family (Scorpaenidae)
BARANGAY: effectively a village, the smallest administrative unit. Historically, the name derives from that of the long-boats in which the Malay settlers arrived in the Philippines. At that time such a boat-load would typically have comprised a headman and his extended family. Even today it is possible to find barangays which are still virtually single-family villages despite the effacing by countless outside marriages of the original family name. The office of barangay captain is elective and carries distinct local status as well as the power to settle disputes and right minor wrongs (barangay justice). It thus represents a great temptation to unscrupulous politicians to ‘job in’ their own supporters in barangay elections on the grounds that he who controls the barangay captains allegedly controls the country at grass-roots level. President Marcos’s KBL party was in effective administrative control of a majority of the country’s barangays until his downfall in 1986, so in the event this seems not to have helped him much. In any case the psychological significance of the barangay as a historical and selfsufficient unit persists strongly. The word is often misspelled ‘barangay’ even in the Philippines. See also the following entry
BARKADA: deriving from the Spanish word for boat-load or crew, this concept has great significance for Filipinos and its meaning varies according to context. At its most innocuous it can describe one’s workmates, one’s circle of friends, one’s drinking companions, which groups can command intense loyalty. In less savoury circumstances it means gang
BARRIO: see following
BARYO: district or subdivision of a municipality.
BAYANIHAN: the principle of doing one’s bit for a community project. Filipinos often cite this as evidence of a boundlessly altruistic national spirit. Not surprisingly the motives for someone giving his labour free range from neighbourly love to respect for majority public opinion
BAYATI: the fruit of a bush which I have not been able to identify. The fruit is cooked, pounded while still hot and can then be mixed with the meat of hermit crabs to make a poisonous fish-bait
BIBINGKA: sweet, flat, circular cakes of rice flour and coconut, properly leavened with fermenting tuba (q.v.) and most improperly with baking powder
BISLAD: sliced, salted and dried fish (syn. daing, q.v.)
BOLO: large knife, machete
BONAK: a name used indiscriminately to describe several species of coral-eating parrotfishes (family Scaridae)
BOKAYO: a sweetmeat made of grated coconut and sugar. The nearest English equivalent would be coconut ice.
BULAKBOL: truant
CALAMANSI: (see kalamansi)
CALESA: (see kalesa)
COGON: (see kugon)
KALAMANSÎ: a small, acid citrus fruit. It is round and no bigger than a marble
KALESA: a horsedrawn, two-wheeled high trap with a roof
KAMOTENG-KAHOY: cassava, manioc
‘KANO: Amerikano. Virtually any white Westerner
KAWAWA: pitiful. Hence ‘ay, kawawa!’ can mean (according to the amount of irony in the speaker’s tone) anything from a sympathetic ‘Poor sod!’ to an entirely unconvincing ‘Oh, poor darling!’
KAYURAN: a grater or rasp
KBL: Kilusang Bagong Lipunan (New Society Movement). The political organisation created by President Marcos as the main vehicle for his own support
KOMOKON: a species of small dove
KUGON: long coarse grass (Imperata cylindrica) much used for thatching
DAING: see bislad
DUHAT: the Java plum tree (Syzygium cumini) or its fruit. Also known as lumboy
ESQ: Extra Smooth Quality. This is the slogan on Tanduay Distillery’s rum and has become the name for the drink. See also lapad
HULI: catch. It can refer to animals of all variety, including fish, taken with any sort of snare, trap or device. May huli mo? addressed to an angler is the equivalent of ‘Any luck?’
LAPAD: lit. ‘broad’. As a noun it almost invariably refers to the flat 375ml bottles of ESQ which are commonly used as containers/units of measure for kerosene, cooking oil, fish sauce, vinegar, spices and a hundred other things
LAPU-LAPU: generic name for fish of the grouper (Serranidae) family
LUMBOY: see duhat
MALUNGKOT: there is no single English equivalent for this word since it means both ‘sad’ and ‘lonely’
MANITIS: commonly, the Indian goat-fish but can describe several other members of the Mullidae
MERYENDA: an afternoon snack often taken for elevenses as well for good measure
NINONG: a godfather or a sponsor at a wedding, confirmation or baptism
NIPA: leaves of the nipa palm (Nypa fruticans) used for thatching
NITO: thin, whippy vines whose tough outer layer can be stripped and used for plaiting, binding and decorative handicrafts
NIYUBAK: a heavy, doughlike mush made of pounded bananas, grated coconut and sugar. Many children appear to like it
NPA: New People s Army: the Communist guerrilla movement
PAKIUSAP: near enough the word for ‘please’ but used in the present context in its modern idiomatic sense of a favour done for any one of a dozen possible reasons.
PANÀ: bow and arrow, hence spear gun
PASALUBONG: a gift expected of anyone arriving after a journey, typically brought by people returning from a stay in Manila or by balikbayan, migrants returning from abroad
PETRON: the Philippines’ national brand of petrol
PORMA: shuttering used for concrete constructions
PULUTAN: snacks served with drink
SAHING: the ‘white pitch’ obtained from the sahing tree, otherwise known as the pili-nut tree (Canarium luzonicum)
SAMARAL: any of several varieties of rabbit-fish (Siganidae)
SAMPAGITA: the Philippines’ National Flower (Nyctanthes sambac)
SARI-SARI: lit. a mixture or variety. Sari-sari or general stores are the basic shop of the Philippine provinces
SAYANG: as an adjective it means ‘wasted’ or ‘lost’; as an interjection, ‘What a pity!’
SULIRAP: panels of woven palm fronds used for roofing and walling houses. Each frond, split lengthwise down the centre of its midrib, provides two panels. In this province a common variant is ‘surilap’
SUMAN: a delicacy made of slightly sweetened glutinous rice bound about with a leaf into the form of a sausage
‘SUPERWHEEL’: ubiquitous brand of blue detergent soap sold by the flat bar
TALISAY: a large and shady species of tree (Terminalia catappa)
TAPAHAN: a dryer or smoker for fish or meat
TUBA: the fermented juice/sap of the palm tree. It is drunk throughout the Philippines and surely qualifies as the National Drink. The juice is retrieved morning and evening. When it is still a few hours old it is generally quite sweet, but fermentation is continuous and the tuba gets progressively stronger in alcohol and more acidic. After eight or ten hours it is virtually undrinkable and, left to itself, gradually turns into suka or vinegar. Since there is no grape wine in the Philippines tuba vinegar is the only variety available although kalamansî juice and tamarinds can also be used for sourness in cooking
TUBLI: (root of a) vine which I cannot identify and which, pounded, is used for stunning fish. It is most commonly used for squirting into undersea holes where there are milling shoals of sumbilang, the catfish (Plotosus anguillaris) which is defended by venomous dorsal and pectoral fin spines
TUKO: the gecko
TUYUAN: a device or a place for drying firewood or fish
YAMAS: the residue after the milk has been rinsed and squeezed out of grated coconut, used for animal feed. True coconut milk, gata, is extensively used in Asian cuisine and has nothing whatever to do with the dank water found in the middle of the nut, which the British call ‘milk’. No Pinoy (Filipino) would thank you for a glass of this rancid, elderly liquid which comes from the antique nuts with leathery flesh exported to Europe. Such are prime copra nuts, not eaters. They have nothing in common with young ‘eating’ coconuts, buko (hence bukayo), with their sweet, clear water and thin skin of slippery milky flesh beginning to form on the inside of the nut like the white hardening in the shell of a gently boiling egg