paktor

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Cantonese 拍拖 (paak³ to¹, “to date, or be dating someone”).

Pronunciation

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): [ˈpʰɑʔˈtʰɔː], [ˈpʰɑk̚-]

Verb

paktor

1. (Singapore, informal) To go out on a date with someone whom one is romantically involved with.
   • 1994 November 20, “The scattering of Satay Club”, in The Straits Times (Leisure), page 32:

     He adds that he goes there with his children once every two months. "A lot of memories. First time I paktor (dated) with my wife was there."

   • 1998 November 7, tcbeez, “Eyes sore at traffic light junction”, in soc.culture.singapore‎^[1] (Usenet):

     Some youngsters paktor with girlfriends also stroll slowly across the roads.

   • 2004 July 10, “Nostalgia? More like costalgia' to me”, in The New Paper (Singapore), page 10:

     When Miss Doris Low and Mr Bobby Chua were 'paktor-ing' (dating) they ate at the carpark stalls at least twice a week.

   • 2014 June 11, “Having a backup fund for retirement”, in My Paper(Singapore), page A18:

     Spending time with the family will always be important. We want to paktor (meaning "go dating" in Cantonese) too.

   • 2015 May 5, “DOING GOOD IN THE LONG RUN”, in The New Paper (Singapore), page 17:

     My wife joins me whenever I train, so it's our time to paktor ("go dating" in Cantonese).

   • 2015 February 27, “Parkour caper is purely a star vehicle for Lautner”, in The Business Times (Singapore), page 37:

     That shares the spotlight with Lautner, who plays Cam, a bicycle courier looking to "paktor" (Cantonese slang for "court") with parkour hottie Nikki (Marie Avgeropoulos).

Usage notes

Commonly used in spoken colloquial Singapore English:

• to suggestively joke about a friend's dating situation.
• by older people to teenagers or young adults, usually in an endearing manner.

Derived terms

• paktorlogy, paktor-ing

Anagrams

• topark

Tagalog

Etymology

Borrowed from English factor or from Spanish factor.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpaktoɾ/, [ˈpak.toɾ] (English influence)

• IPA^(key): /pakˈtoɾ/, [pɐkˈtoɾ] (Spanish influence)
• Hyphenation: pak‧tor

Noun

paktor or paktór (Baybayin spelling ᜉᜃ᜔ᜆᜓᜇ᜔)

1. factor

   Synonym: salik

References

• “paktor”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila, 2018