Comments on recent additions

Thomas H. Slone THSlone at yahoo.com
Fri Mar 15 00:27:54 EST 2002


Glad to hear that the FTP woes are over John!  Here are some comments 
on your recent additions:

pamuk
pamuk man: prostitute's client, "john"

any ideas on the etymology of pamuk?  Could it be a contraction of 
"pam huk", where "pam" is the Tok Piksa meaning (penis)?

kona
Your query on the Scientific name for faiv kona:  It is Averhhoa 
carambola, as stated in Mihalic (p. 85) (see also 
http://florawww.eeb.uconn.edu/acc_num/198500347.html)

kranki
etymology: kranki could also be from (or reinforced by) the German 
"krank" (sick, ill) (Slone, 1995: 90)

kranki: culturally backward (Tok Bokis) (Schwartz, 1962: 239)

dungki
I have not seen or heard this term used, but from the description you 
gave it would probably refers to rhinoceros beetles in the Dynastinae 
subfamily of scarab beetles (family Scarabaeidae).  The most common 
species in PNG is Xylotrupes gideon (Gressitt & Hornabrook, 1977: 
34-35).

pekpek
Slone (1995) is referred to here but is missing from the bibliography

mauspekpek: to waffle (Tok Piksa) [Todd and Mühlhäusler, 1978: 30]

tok, tokim
tok masta: a variety of Tok Pisin used by non-native speakers

manki
I question the assertion that this was brought by Malay traders.  The 
closest sounding Malay word for monkey is "monyet".  I think it's 
more likely that it came directly from English.

wok
ful wok: "labour which is both heavy, poorly rewarded and imposed by 
others" (Strathern, 1975: 34-36). This could be a conflation foolish 
work (ful wok) and extorted work (pul wok) (Slone, 1995: 85-86).

kat, katim
katim kona    1. to take a shortcut   2. to have premarital sex (Tok 
Piksa) [Mühlhäusler, 1979: 336]

References
Gressitt, J. L. & Hornabrook, R. W. (1977). Handbook of Common New 
Guinea Beetles. Wau Ecology Institute Handbook No. 2. Wau, Papua New 
Guinea: Wau Ecology Institute.

Schwartz, Theodore (1962). "The Paliau Movement in the Admiralty 
Islands, 1946-1954." Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of 
Natural History 49(2): 211-421.

Slone, Thomas H. (1995). "Tok Nogut: An Introduction to Malediction 
in Papua New Guinea." Maledicta: The International Journal of Verbal 
Aggression 11: 75-104.

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