di di mau

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English

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Etymology

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Borrowed from Vietnamese đi đi mau (get lost!). Borrowed into English by American military personnel returning from the Vietnam War, as well as by Vietnamese immigrants; popularized by the movie The Deer Hunter.

This is an uncommon way to say "Hurry up!" in Vietnamese. The verb đi (to go) can be expressed as a command: "Đi đi! One may even express a sense of urgency with the word mau (fast): "Đi mau đi! However, Vietnamese speakers tend to use the verbs mau lên, nhanh lên, and vội lên in exactly the way an English speaker would use hurry up.

Verb

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di di mau or di-di mau (defective verb)

  1. (slang) To leave quickly, hurry away.
    • 1978, The Deer Hunter (via IMDB):
      [Viet Cong guard, to prisoner forced to play Russian roulette:] MAU! MAU! DIDI MAU!
    • 1984, Wallace Terry, Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War, Random House, →ISBN, page 171:
      And if a Vietnamese, be it man, woman, or child, refused to di di mau or tried to get away, the authorization was to go ’head and shoot ’em.
    • 1995, Nicholas Warr, Phase Line Green: The Battle for Hue, 1968, Naval Institute Press, →ISBN, page 18:
      [] No contact with any gooks. They just blew the bridges and di-di mau’d.” Since I knew that di-di means “go,” and that mau means “fast,” I knew that the VC had made themselves scarce.
    • 2000, “Skinner’s Sense of Snow” (television episode), The Simpsons, December 17, 2000:
      "What part of "Di di Mau" don't you understand, Skinner?"
    • 2002, Nelson DeMille, Up country: a novel, →ISBN, page 138:
      [] Di di mau!” which means get moving, and is not very polite. I started to turn away, then I had a good idea that would make everyone happy.
    • 2016, Thomas Schnauz, “Fifi” (38:10 from the start), in Better Call Saul, season 2, episode 8:
      Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk): Oh, and point me to your best copier. / Lance (Elisha Yaffe): Best copier? / Jimmy: Yeah, best copier. C'mon, di di mau.

References

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  • di di mau” in Encarta World English Dictionary, North American Edition.
  • Langenscheidt's Pocket Dictionary Vietnamese/English
  • Dictionary of Marine Corps Terms and Words Used in Vietnam