chopstick

English

Chopsticks

Etymology

From Chinese Pidgin English chop (“quick”) (compare chop-chop) + stick. The first element is a calque of Chinese 筷子 (kuàizi, “chopstick”), derived from 快 (kuài, “quick”).

Pronunciation

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Noun

chopstick (plural chopsticks)

1. (usually in the plural) An East Asian eating utensil usually used as a pair and held in one hand to grip pieces of food or occasionally to mix liquids or scoop up small pieces of food. The utensil is a stick, usually made of wood and measuring approximately 23cm (10 inches) in length.
   • 1906 January, R. T. Booth, “Medical and Surgical Notes”, in China Medical Missionary Journal‎^[1], volume XX, number 1, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 75:

     It took three months’ massage twice a day for ten minutes to bring the muscles to a good condition, and the boy left the hospital able to lift weights as well as to use his chop-sticks.

2. (ethnic slur) An Asian person.

Derived terms

• chopstick rest

Related terms

• chop chop
• stick

Translations

single eating utensil

• Abkhaz: please add this translation if you can
• Ainu: パスイ (pasuy), イペパスイ (ipepasuy)
• Amis: alapit, alapi, alalpit
• Arabic: أَعْوَاد الْأَكْل pl (ʔaʕwād al-ʔakl), هَاشِي m (hāšī) (from Japanese), عَصَا الْأَكْل m (ʕaṣā l-ʔakl)
• Armenian: փայտիկ (hy) (pʻaytik), ուտելու փայտիկ (utelu pʻaytik)
• Asturian: paliyu m, paliellu m
• Atayal: qqway
• Bengali: হাশি (bn) (haśi)
• Bouyei: deh
• Bulgarian: пръ́чка за хра́нене f (prǎ́čka za hránene), кле́чка за хра́нене f (kléčka za hránene)
• Bunun: halcis
• Burmese: တူ (my) (tu)
• Catalan: bastonet (ca) m
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 筷子 (faai³ zi²)

  Dungan: куэзы (kuezɨ)

  Eastern Min: 箸 (dê̤ṳ)

  Gan: 筷子 (kuai³ zi)

  Hakka: 筷仔 (khoai-é)

  Hokkien: 箸 (zh-min-nan) (tī, tū)

  Jin: 筷子 (kuai³ zeh)

  Mandarin: 筷子 (zh) (kuàizi), 筷兒／筷儿 (zh) (kuàir), 箸 (zh) (zhù) (literary)

  Wu: 筷 (¹khue), 筷子

  Xiang: 筷子 (kuai⁴ zr)

• Czech: jídelní hůlka f
• Danish: spisepind c
• Dutch: eetstokje (nl) n
• Esperanto: haŝio, manĝbastoneto, kvajzo
• Estonian: söögipulk
• Faroese: etingarpinnur m, matpinnur m
• Finnish: syömäpuikko (fi), puikko (fi)
• French: baguette (fr) f
• Georgian: ჩხირები (čxirebi)
• German: Essstäbchen (de) n
• Greek: ξυλάκι (el) n (xyláki)
• Gujarati: હાશી (hāśī)
• Hawaiian: lāʻau ʻai
• Hebrew: מַקְּלוֹת אֲכִילָה m pl (mak'lót akhilá)
• Hindi: चीनी काँटा (cīnī kā̃ṭā)
• Hlai: tiep
• Hungarian: evőpálcika (hu)
• Icelandic: matarprjónn m, prjónn m
• Indonesian: sumpit (id), penyepit (id), penjepit (id), sepit (id)
• Irish: cipín itheacháin m
• Isan: please add this translation if you can
• Italian: bacchetta (it) f
• Japanese: 箸 (ja) (はし, hashi), おはし (ja) (o-hashi), 菜箸 (さいばし, saibashi) (cooking/serving only), おてもと (ja), お手許, お手元, 御手許, 御手元 (ja) (otemoto), 割り箸 (ja) (わりばし, waribashi) (splittable)
• Kanakanabu: 'arating
• Kavalan: ipit
• Kazakh: таяқша (taäqşa)
• Khmer: ចង្កឹះ (km) (cɑngkəh), ថ្កៀប (km) (thkiəp)
• Korean: 젓가락 (ko) (jeotgarak), 저가락 (ko) (jeogarak) (North Korea)
• Lao: ໄມ້ຖູ່ (lo) (mai thū), ຖູ່ (thū), ຕະຂຽບ (ta khīap)
• Lü: ᦏᦴᧈ (ṫhuu¹), ᦺᦙᧉᦏᦴᧈ (may²ṫhuu¹), ᦑᦰᦵᦆᧇ (t!xeb)
• Macanese: faichi
• Macedonian: стапче за јадење n (stapče za jadenje)
• Malay: penyepit, sepit (ms)
• Maltese: stikek tal-injam pl
• Manchu: ᠰᠠᠪᡴᠠ (sabka)
• Maori: kapekape, kakape
• Miyako: please add this translation if you can
• Mon: သ္ကေပ်
• Mongolian: савх (mn) (savx), модон савх (modon savx)
• Nivkh: чафӄ (ț’afq)
• Norwegian: spisepinne m
• Nuosu: ꎋ (rrup)
• Occitan: bròca (oc) f
• Okinawan: メーシ (meeshi), ウメーシ (umeeshi)
• Paiwan: qecap
• Polish: pałeczka (pl) f
• Portuguese: pauzinho (pt) m, hashi (pt) m
• Puyuma: tratringal
• Rukai: kacipi
• Russian: па́лочка для еды́ f (páločka dlja jedý), па́лочка (ru) f (páločka), кита́йские па́лочки f pl (kitájskije páločki) (in the plural only)
• Saaroa: 'aratingi
• Saisiyat: hahawar, hahowar, sasoway
• Sakizaya: atip
• Shan: ထူႇ (shn) (thùu), မႆႉထူႇ (mâ̰i thùu)
• Slovak: palička f
• Spanish: palillo (es) m
• Swedish: ätpinne (sv) c, pinne (sv) c, kinapinne (sv) c
• Tagalog: sipit-Intsik, sipit ng Intsik, ipit-ipit
• Tajik: чӯбчаи хӯрока (tg) (čübčayi xüroka)
• Taroko: atak
• Thai: ตะเกียบ (th) (dtà-gìiap)
• Thao: kakthi
• Tibetan: ཁོ་ཙེ (kho tse)
• Tsou: husu
• Turkish: yemek çubuğu
• Tuvan: сакпыт (sakpıt)
• Uyghur: چوكا (choka)
• Vietnamese: đũa (vi) (𥮊), đũa cả (vi) (𥮊哿) (for serving rice from a pot)
• Volapük: fidastafil (vo)
• Welsh: gweillen fwyta f
• White Hmong: rab rawg tais, rawg
• Yami: sosopit
• Zhuang: dawh, guhduh
• Zulu: please add this translation if you can

Verb

chopstick (third-person singular simple present chopsticks, present participle chopsticking, simple past and past participle chopsticked)

1. (transitive, intransitive, informal) To pick up (food) using chopsticks.

See also

• Wikipedia article on chopsticks