What is the meaning of Chopstick?
An East Asian eating utensil usually used as a pair and held in one hand to grip pieces of food or occasionally to mix liquids or scoop up small pieces of food. The utensil is a stick, usually made of wood and measuring approximately 23cm (10 inches) in length.
An Asian person.
A long straight stick forming part of various fishing tackle arrangements.
To pick up (food), or eat, using chopsticks, or as with chopsticks.
↑ The Pidgin English derivation was first put forward by Handley Moule and presented in Yule and Burnell's Hobson-Jobson (1886), page 162/1: (The Chinese name of the article is ‘kwai-tsz,’ ‘speedy-ones.’ “Possibly the inventor of the present word, hearing that the Chinese name had this meaning, and accustomed to the phrase chop-chop for ‘speedily,’ used chop as a translation” (Bishop Moule).) Thence adopted by the Oxford English Dictionary (in 1893), and so passing down to most English language dictionaries from the late 19th century onwards.
↑ The chronological impossibility of the Pidgin English derivation was first noted by Kingsley Bolton in his Chinese English: A Sociolinguistic History (2003), Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, page 139.
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