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Hallå Kitteh (clacke@social.heldscal.la)'s status on Monday, 26-Jun-2017 07:52:01 UTC Hallå Kitteh
@perloid @johnnynull @andyc Hah! TIL.

A recipe is actually what "recept" means in Swedish.

Receipt in Swedish is "kvitto", coming from the German "Quittung", although the most common word for a receipt in German is "Kassenbon", where the "bon" comes from French, although the French themselves prefer the term "ticket de caisse". :-D

Someone else would have to figure out which language "ticket" comes from. I would love it if it surprisingly turned out to come from English.

In conversation Monday, 26-Jun-2017 07:52:01 UTC from social.heldscal.la permalink
- Hallå Kitteh (clacke@social.heldscal.la)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jun-2017 13:43:37 UTC Hallå Kitteh
  - Dave Morriss
  @perloid "Chop" is really any ink stamp ever. The post office chops your postage.
  
  In conversation Wednesday, 21-Jun-2017 13:43:37 UTC permalink
- Hallå Kitteh (clacke@social.heldscal.la)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jun-2017 13:47:02 UTC Hallå Kitteh
  - Johnny Null
  - andyc@pleroma.stream
  @andyc @johnnynull I thought British people might at least know about it, but consider it archaic. The Shroff Office is where you pay your parking fees in the shopping center, or where you pay your application fee in the Immigration Department, etc. Administrative cashier.
  
  In conversation Wednesday, 21-Jun-2017 13:47:02 UTC permalink
- Johnny Null (johnnynull@freezepeach.xyz)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jun-2017 13:53:34 UTC Johnny Null
  in reply to
  - andyc@pleroma.stream
  @clacke Thank you, that is interesting. I'll pop it into Etemology Online. / @andyc
  
  In conversation Wednesday, 21-Jun-2017 13:53:34 UTC permalink
- Johnny Null (johnnynull@freezepeach.xyz)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jun-2017 13:54:56 UTC Johnny Null
  in reply to
  - Johnny Null
  - andyc@pleroma.stream
  @clacke @andyc Etymology, rather.
  
  In conversation Wednesday, 21-Jun-2017 13:54:56 UTC permalink
- andyc@pleroma.stream (andyc@mastodon.sdf.org)'s status on Wednesday, 21-Jun-2017 13:58:52 UTC andyc@pleroma.stream
  in reply to
  - Johnny Null
  @clacke @johnnynull Hong Kong English - https://smokeytower.wordpress.com/2014/10/21/what-is-a-shroff-office-and-other-hong-kong-english/
  In conversation Wednesday, 21-Jun-2017 13:58:52 UTC permalink
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    What is a Shroff Office? (and other Hong Kong English)
    
    By colinh1972 from Interesting times
    
    I was pleasantly surprised by my visit to Hong Kong. It is clear that the locals have a far better grasp of English than the mainland Chinese and there were no very strange “Chinglish” signs. However, there were a few signs which caused a bit of confusion. The most common of these was the Shroff office.
    
    The first time I saw this sign I just assumed it was a mistake, but it came up time and again, at the university and in the shopping centres. It made me wonder what it could be. I thought that perhaps it was a Cantonese word that had no direct translation, but I was wrong.
    
    In an online dictionary it was given as being a “money changer” in India and for “coin tester” in the Far East, especially China. This doesn’t really explain what it would be in a car park. I thus had to do a bit more digging.
    
    It was traditionally an Indian word for the guy who manages the money collection / changing. In the early days of British colonialism, Indians may have shared money changing duties with car parking payment booths. You still see a lot of Indians in charge of the entrances of a lot of the South Island apartment complexes, so its possible there is some connection. Indians were also used for a lot of the British security muscle during the late 19th century and early 20th century.
    
    In White’s book “turbans and traders’ all about South Asians in Hong Kong she notes that the Shroff was the ‘Police Court Official to whom money was paid’ in 1872. Now in this era of Hong Kong the great bulk of the police force were South Asian. As the term has a East Asian origin it seems likely that the term was adopted by the administration because of the large South Asian contingent in Hong Kong and the forces.
    
    It has endured and remains one of those odd reminders of the complex colonial heritage of Hong Kong. The ceremonial post of Grand Shroff still exists, and you can see him with his sword in the annual New Year’s Parade.
    
    This wasn’t the only word that seemed to be unique to Hong Kong. Some other words and phrases that are widely understood in Hong Kong, yet are rare or unheard of elsewhere follow.
    
    A ‘chop’ is a seal or stamp, e.g. a “Company chop” is the seal or stamp of a corporation (It actually originates from colonial Indian English.) It is now used in some other Commonwealth countries as a non-official term
    
    A Tai Pan (or ‘taipan’) is a term used in the early 20th century for a business executive of a large corporation.
    
    An amah is a term used in early 20th century for a live-in servant (from Macanese/Portuguese- ama nurse); now supplanted by “domestic helper”
    
    A ‘shroff‘ is a cashier in a hospital, a government office or a car park (parking garage).
    
    “Godown” is a warehouse From the Malay “gudang”.
    
    Nullah is a concrete-lined canal or an re-enforced creek bed used to contain run-off. Nullah entered the English language from Hindi. The word nullah is used almost exclusively in Hong Kong.
    
    ‘FILTH’/’Filth’ (Failed in London, Try Hongkong) is a slang expression used to refer to people who look for employment opportunities in Hong Kong after being unsuccessful in looking for a job in the United Kingdom.
    
    Jetso (“著數”) is sometimes used to mean discount or special offer. Also means pecuniary advantage
    
    ‘Hong Kong foot’, a literal translation of the Chinese slang term “香港腳” for athlete’s foot.
    
    As well as there being some confusing foreign words, there were also some very strange Chinese translations.
    
    The Chinese sign on a transformer room completely bewildered Christal, as it seemed to have no connection to power or electricity or anything along those lines. I can only assume that when read in Cantonese it might sound like Transformer.
    
    When rendering foreign names into Chinese, the result can be pretty baffling. The Chinese language does not render sounds, but meanings. The meaning is the same everywhere in China, but the sound of the word would be different in every dialect. Generally I am used to seeing Western names rendered using characters which sound vaguely similar to the name, when read in the Mandarin dialect. There are usually a lot of similar sounding Chinese words, but there are some conventions about which are chosen. The Chinese idea of what an English name sounds like can be a bit baffling. David becomes Dawei, Paul becomes Baoluo and Simon becomes Ximeng. As it is a rendering of an idea, rather than a sound, this can lead to further confusion. Especially if you don’t realise it is meant to be a name. Big Ben for example is written as 大笨钟 which means “big stupid clock”. Ben unfortunately sounds like the Chinese word 笨 meaning stupid.
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- Hallå Kitteh (clacke@social.heldscal.la)'s status on Monday, 26-Jun-2017 05:09:52 UTC Hallå Kitteh
  @andyc @johnnynull @perloid
  
  "Please take advice" is a good tip for life in general, but when the ATM says it, it means to take your withdrawal transcript/receipt/slip from the machine. What do Americans and Brits call it?
  
  In conversation Monday, 26-Jun-2017 05:09:52 UTC permalink
- Johnny Null (johnnynull@freezepeach.xyz)'s status on Monday, 26-Jun-2017 09:38:53 UTC Johnny Null
  in reply to
  - Andy C
  - Dave Morriss
  @clacke @perloid @andyc Receipt: late 14c., "act of receiving;" also "statement of ingredients in a potion or medicine;" from Anglo-French or Old North French receite "receipt, recipe, prescription" (c. 1300), altered (by influence of receit "he receives," from Vulgar Latin *recipit) from Old French recete, from Latin recepta "received," fem. past participle of recipere (see receive). Meaning "written acknowledgment of money or goods received" is from c. 1600.
  
  In conversation Monday, 26-Jun-2017 09:38:53 UTC permalink
- Johnny Null (johnnynull@freezepeach.xyz)'s status on Monday, 26-Jun-2017 09:39:41 UTC Johnny Null
  in reply to
  - Andy C
  - Dave Morriss
  @clacke @perloid @andyc Ticket: 1520s, "short note or document," from a shortened form of Middle French etiquet "label, note," from Old French estiquette "a little note" (late 14c.), especially one affixed to a gate or wall as a public notice, literally "something stuck (up or on)," from estiquer "to affix, stick on, attach," from Frankish *stikkan, cognate with Old English stician "to pierce," from Proto-Germanic *stikken "to be stuck," stative form from PIE *steig- "to stick; pointed" (see stick (v.)).
  
  Meaning "card or piece of paper that gives its holder a right or privilege" is first recorded 1670s, probably developing from the sense of "certificate, licence, permit." The political sense of "list of candidates put forward by a faction" has been used in American English since 1711. Meaning "official notification of offense" is from 1930. Big ticket item is from 1953. Slang the ticket "just the thing, what is expected" is recorded from 1838, perhaps with notion of a winning lottery ticket.
  
  In conversation Monday, 26-Jun-2017 09:39:41 UTC permalink
- Hallå Kitteh (clacke@social.heldscal.la)'s status on Tuesday, 27-Jun-2017 01:44:20 UTC Hallå Kitteh
  in reply to
  @johnnynull @perloid @andyc Ah! Thanks! We have "etikett" for label, and also for etiquette.
  
  So it did come from Proto-Germanic. I'll chalk that down as an "almost yes" for my hope that it came from English.
  
  I wasn't aware that French borrowed words from Frankish. But of course it did.
  
  In conversation Tuesday, 27-Jun-2017 01:44:20 UTC permalink

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