ngapi

English

Alternative forms

• ngapee, nga-pee

Etymology

From Burmese ငါးပိ (nga:pi., literally “pressed fish”).

Noun

ngapi (uncountable)

1. (cooking) A pungent Burmese condiment made from fermented and compressed fish or shrimp paste.
   • 1876, "Burmah" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 9th ed., Vol. IV, p. 552:

     The rivers and lakes abound with fish, from which the inhabitants prepare their favourite condiment of ngapee.

   • 1880, J.H. Titcomb, Personal Recollections of British Burma and Its Church Mission Work in 1878–79, Ch. vii:

     Passing by Henzada, because intending to return thither, we went on to Yangdoon or Nyoungdoon, a large and thriving ports celebrated for its fishing trade. Of this fact we were soon abundantly convinced by the abominable smell of nga-pee, a kind of dried and putrid fish, of which the Burmese are particularly fond; nor by that circumstance alone, for we counted a hundred and twenty large trading vessels anchored along the bank.

   • 1882, James George Scott, The Burman: His Life and Notions, Ch. xxviii: "Nga-pee":

     Travellers on the steamers of the Irrawaddy Flotilla Company are wont to rail in no measured terms at the fish-paste which forms an invariable and obtrusively evident part of the cargo, yet no Burman would think a dinner complete without his modicum of nga-pee, and it is a noteworthy fact that one form of the condiment is of frequent appearance on English dinner-tables in the East, under the name of balachong, a term borrowed from the Straits Settlements, but which designates nothing more nor less than a specially prepared variety of nga-pee.

Hyponyms

• balachong

Translations

a pungent Burmese condiment made from fermented and compressed fish or shrimp paste

• Burmese: ငါးပိ (my) (nga:pi.)
• Khmer: កាពិ (km) (kaapiʾ)

• Lao: ກະປິ (ka pi)
• Thai: กะปิ (th) (gà-bpì)

References

• Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd ed. "ngapi, n." Oxford University Press (Oxford), 2003.

Anagrams

• aping, ganpi

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Ngarrindjeri

Alternative forms

• ngan

Pronoun

ngapi

1. I; the first person singular emphatic personal pronoun.

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Swahili

Adjective

-ngapi (declinable)

1. how many?

Usage notes

Follows the noun and behaves like a normal adjective; for example, nyumba ngapi? ("how many houses?").

Inflection

Inflected forms of -ngapi

Noun class	plural only
M-wa class	wangapi
M-mi class	mingapi
Ma class	mangapi
Ki-vi class	vingapi
N class	ngapi
U class	ngapi
Pa class	pangapi
Ku class	kungapi
Mu class	mungapi