Vol. 09 · Loanwords ·Chinese ·1930s
Bok choy
from baahk-choi
- Meaning
- Chinese white cabbage.
- Source word
- baahk-choi
- Route into English
- Cantonese *baahk-choi* (white vegetable) → American English via Cantonese-speaking immigrants to California. British English usually calls the same vegetable *pak choi*, from Mandarin *báicài*.
- Arrived
- 1930s
From Chinese
Trade English from the South China Sea ports (especially Hokkien-speaking Xiamen and Canton) seeded the early borrowings; 20th-century diplomacy and military contact added the rest.
English borrows.
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