ponteng

English

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Malay ponteng.

Verb

ponteng (third-person singular simple present pontengs, present participle pontenging, simple past and past participle pontenged)

  1. (Singlish, Manglish) To skip (school or work); play truant.
    • 1978, Adibah Amin, As I was Passing, volume 2, page 197:
      [] she rushed up to me at the end shouting: "Hei you came! Did you ponteng work?"
      I do not advocated "pontenging" of course but I do strongly recommend one primary school sports meet at least for each parent and soon.
    • Quoted in 2009, Rosaly Puthucheary, Different Voices: The Singaporean/Malaysian Novel (page 124)
      But that was the best place to spend the day if you pontenged school. It was so cool and quiet.

Malay

Etymology

Probably from Chinese.[1]

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈponteŋ/ [ˈpon̪.t̪eŋ]
  • Rhymes: -onteŋ, -teŋ, -eŋ
  • Hyphenation: pon‧teng

Verb

ponteng (Jawi spelling ڤونتيڠ, active memonteng, 3rd person passive diponteng)

  1. (transitive) To cheat; to swindle.
    Synonyms: tipu, kecoh
  2. (informal, transitive) To ditch or skip work, school and so on; to skive.
    Synonym: fly (Malaysia, slang)
    Adam tak pernah ponteng kelasnya.
    Adam has never skipped his classes.

Compounds

References

  1. ^ Hamilton, A. W. (1924). Chinese Loan-Words in Malay. Journal of the Malayan Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 2(1 (90)), 55. http://www.jstor.org/stable/41559569

Further reading