Singaporean Mandarin Database

This database contains a collection of Mandarin terms which have cultural, historical or sentimental value unique to Singapore. These terms may be used by Singaporeans in the past or at present. Some of the terms are read in print while others are used in our everyday conversations.

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马

mă

打

dă

police (colloquially known as mata, derived from mata-mata)

Culture

文化

Culture

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police (colloquially known as mata, derived from mata-mata)

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Photo courtesy of Yumcha Studios & Colin Goh
Culture

文化

Culture

释义

名词

警察的俗称。

DEFINITION

Noun

Colloquial term for police.

由来
  • “马打”源自于荷印时期华人的用语，在印度尼西亚华人公馆的档案《公案簿》可见“㐷礁”一词。“马打”是印度尼西亚语 mata-mata 简略化的对音，其基词 mata 是眼睛的意思，取其“耳目”的含义，因此以 mata-mata 来称呼“暗探”，马来语的 mata-mata 指的是警察。
ETYMOLOGY
  • “马打” originates from a term used by the Indonesian Chinese during the Dutch colonial period. In the book Gong An Bu (《公案簿》) by the Chinese Council of Batavia (Kong Koan), the term “㐷礁” is used. “马打” (mata) is a phonetic abbreviation of the Bahasa Indonesia term mata-mata. The root word mata refers to eyes, and by extension, matamata refers to a “detective” or “spy”. In Malay, mata-mata refers to the police.
例句
在华语还不普及，本地人主要使用马来语及闽南方言的时代，巴刹是马来语pasar的音译词，是市场的意思；“马打”也来自马来语mata-mata，是警察的意思；“厝”是闽南语称“房子”的用词，例如医院叫“老君厝”，消防局叫“打火厝”，而“马打厝”就是指警察局。（《联合晚报》， 10/10/2018）
SAMPLE SENTENCE
In the early days, when Mandarin was not commonly used, locals mainly conversed in Malay and Hokkien. The term “巴刹” is a transliteration of the Malay term pasar, “马打” originated from the Malay term mata-mata for police. As for “厝”, it is the Hokkien term for “house”. As such, hospitals were known as “老君厝”, fire stations were known as “打火厝” and police stations were known as “马打厝”. (Lianhe Wanbao, 10/10/2018)
参考资料
点击查看马打的参考资料
REFERENCES

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