dabao

English

Etymology

From Cantonese 打包 (daa2 baau1, “to pack and unpack”).

Pronunciation

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): [ˌtɑ(ː)˧ˈpaʊ]

Verb

dabao (usually indeclinable)

1. (Singapore) Alternative form of tapao
   • 1999 September 27, sg.jobs.offer‎^[1] (Usenet):

     Moreover, they don't go for lunch but "Da Bao" and keep working during lunch break.

   • 2008 July 30, Joseph Heng, “pre-departure food outing (yay!)”, in Hopkins4U‎^[2], retrieved 2018-10-28:

     xiaoyang: though one thing - can we move the place to bedok instead? all the famous hawker food in katong kind of close at night, but bedok block 85 bak chor mee + sambal stingray + orh luah + aboling only open at night. anyone strongly objects to that? Joseph Heng: tapao something for me?

   • 2013 June 4, NY5 2013‎^[3] (Usenet):

     This isn't meant to shame people, just to kind of remind them (and the audience) that sometimes, little things like take-aways from the canteen aren't always necessary, and that by not da-baoing for a change, we can make a positive contribution to the environment (decreasing the demand for logging/deforestation for paper!).

Usage notes

Common in spoken and written colloquial Singapore English (Singlish); uncommon in formal speech or discourse.