kee = shit/waste/residue

kee hung = jealous

kee kiat = lazy

kee itcha = envious

kee neeo = stingy

kee mao = drunk

kee hooie = talkative

kee dta = eye shit

kee hoo = ear wax

kee tow = turtle shit? body odour.

kee bu-ree = ciggy ash

kee peung = bee wax

kee pung = fat belly?

kee reuay = sawdust

kee len = playful

kee lerm/loom = forgetful

kee aai = shy

kee moh = bragging/bragger

kee lee = womanizer? butteryfly?

Farang Khee nok = bird shit westerner = Cheap Charlie, broke Farang.

Khee gehk= cocky, pretentious.

gluaa john khee dtaaek = scared shitless.

Khee Khee Dee = "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"

Anyone else spend their days looking up rude words in the dictionary..?

Note that ขี้ 'excrement, waste' is a homonym of ขี้ 'inclined towards, having a habit of'; they're different words, and a phrase like ขี้กลัว khii klua "scaredy cat" doesn't conjure images of feces into a Thai's head. (And note that กลัวขี้ klua khii "afraid of/to shit", on the other hand, does )

So making a list of ขี้ words that includes both meanings is really mixing two separate concepts.

Khee Khee Dee = "Don't Go Breaking My Heart"

Brilliant.

Wondered how long it would take someone to spot that

Farang Khee nok = bird shit westerner = Cheap Charlie, broke Farang.

I believe that "farang khee nok" has the meaning of "a Thai who acts like a westerner", "a dirty, backpacking westerner" and "a variety of guava".

"khee gnok" has the meaning of "stingy/cheap Charlie".

kee pung = fat belly?

khii[FL]-poom[RS] means a fat belly in Northern Thai. It's not Standard Thai though.

In Standard Thai it is just พุง phoong[MS]

Perhaps one should think of the root meaning of ขี้ in English as 'to exude' thus capturing most meanings in Thai. But certainly, unlike us overly retentive westerners, Thais do not conjure up images of bodily waste when they hear common words using the ขี้ prefix.

Yes, I don't have any reason to think that they're not etymologically linked, but I don't know for certain that they are, either. Simply a comment about how to understand how a modern Thai perceives the words, is all.

The one that has always bothered me is ขี้เหนียว I know what it means, but have always wondered which homonym is in use here as it would make sense either way.

Another one is ขี้เล่น playful.

Note that ขี้ 'excrement, waste' is a homonym of ขี้ 'inclined towards, having a habit of'; they're different words, and a phrase like ขี้กลัว khii klua "scaredy cat" doesn't conjure images of feces into a Thai's head. (And note that กลัวขี้ klua khii "afraid of/to shit", on the other hand, does )

So making a list of ขี้ words that includes both meanings is really mixing two separate concepts.

Interesting Riker, I've often herd ขี้จมูก and ขี้ตา refered to the "crap" that your eyes and nose expell. I had never taken ขี้ to mean feces litteraly, unless it's being used in an obvious manner. I've always interpreted it more as "something your body produces".

Cheers

The one that has always bothered me is ขี้เหนียว I know what it means, but have always wondered which homonym is in use here as it would make sense either way.

Another one is ขี้เล่น playful.

Something else you กินกับไก่ย่าง perhaps?

I'm always afraid to order "pad kee mao" in a restaurant, fearful that it'll come out sounding more like "fried cat shit".

I'm always afraid to order "pad kee mao" in a restaurant, fearful that it'll come out sounding more like "fried cat shit".

The term "kee mao" above means "drunkard", or having the quality of being drunk ("mao"). "pad kee mao" is a very popular dish, something like "pad see yu" but with chilies. I think it is used here because drunkards are supposed to like to eat hot food when they drink.

Interesting Riker, I've often herd ขี้จมูก and ขี้ตา refered to the "crap" that your eyes and nose expell. I had never taken ขี้ to mean feces litteraly, unless it's being used in an obvious manner. I've always interpreted it more as "something your body produces".

Cheers

If we were to extrapolate the meaning of ขี้ from all the compounds it's found in, it means something general like "waste" or "residue", including not just bodily fluids but the by-product of some kind of action. One example of a non-bodily ขี้ word is ขี้เลื่อยไม้ "wood shavings", like you put in a hamster cage.

But ขี้ on its own usually refers to feces, and is also a less-than-polite verb for defecate. So my lame joke about กลัวขี้ would be understood as a reference to actual crap, while ขี้ตา and ขี้หู don't conjure images of feces in the Thai mind any more than ขี้กลัว, I'd say.

I'm always afraid to order "pad kee mao" in a restaurant, fearful that it'll come out sounding more like "fried cat shit".

I can imagine a confused but obliging cook muttering to himself "crazy foreigner" as he cooks you up some nice feline droppings.

The term "kee mao" above means "drunkard" ... I think it is used here because drunkards are supposed to like to eat hot food when they drink.

Yes, that's the explanation I've always heard for the name, too. Very tasty dish, เมา or otherwise.

I'm always afraid to order "pad kee mao" in a restaurant, fearful that it'll come out sounding more like "fried cat shit".

I can imagine a confused but obliging cook muttering to himself "crazy foreigner" as he cooks you up some nice feline droppings.

Why would "mao" be confused with the word for cat?

I'm always afraid to order "pad kee mao" in a restaurant, fearful that it'll come out sounding more like "fried cat shit".

I can imagine a confused but obliging cook muttering to himself "crazy foreigner" as he cooks you up some nice feline droppings.

Why would "mao" be confused with the word for cat?

Because due to my lazy tongue and poor pronunciation skills, เมา (mao) usually comes out sounding the same as แมว (meaw). And yes, pad kee mao is a lot like pad see-ew, but with peppers and basil. Not sure why the dish ever got tagged with that name, since its generally been fairly low on the spicy scale whenever I've had it.

kee poon = dust

we discussed "drunken chicken" in another thread.

I believe it's because the meat is marinated in rice wine or other alcohol before cooking.

Why would "mao" be confused with the word for cat?

Due to foreigner mispronunciation, of course. But even if soemone said แมว very ชัด when they meant เมา, I think it somewhat less than likely that any cook is going to cook up ขี้แมว, even if they did have it handy.

kee Ghet = lazy

kee poon should be kee foon = dust

Rikker. Some of us don't read Thai. Be nice if you could furnish the phonetic spelling for us. (If that's possible).

Rikker. Some of us don't read Thai. Be nice if you could furnish the phonetic spelling for us. (If that's possible).

There's a number of on-line dictionaries where you can copy and paste the Thai text and and will be shown the phonetic spelling along with a translation.

www.thai-language.com

www.thai2english.com

Rikker. Some of us don't read Thai. Be nice if you could furnish the phonetic spelling for us. (If that's possible).

There's a number of on-line dictionaries available where you can copy and paste the Thai text and and will be shown the phonetic spelling along with a translation.

www.thai-language.com

www.thai2english.com

Sorry about that. That's a common point of debate in this forum (and others like it). Mike's site http://www.thai2english.com allows you to paste in a sentence (even mixed English and Thai), and choose from half a dozen romanization schemes.

(Since I don't use romanization in real life, I tend to forget or be lazy on here. There are so many systems that it tends to cause confusion and often long tangents about what word is actually meant, where Thai script is direct and precise.)

Yeah I thought of that after I posted.

I will look up "kee mao" by myself too.

It does not mean "drunk" as the OP said.

Yeah I thought of that after I posted.

I will look up "kee mao" by myself too.

It does not mean "drunk" as the OP said.

Reverse Phonemic Transcription, allows you to enter Romanized Thai, for example "kee mao", and it will show you possible transcriptions in Thai.

Have fun.

IMHO in most cases, especially when it preceeds an adjective, it is really the second definition from thai-language dot com;

http://thai-language.com/id/133007

"an idiomatic prefix implying a bad or negative character trait"

I tend to think of it as a negative emphasizer; taking a trait, and/or adjective and skewing it to the negative.

Notice how I said when it preceeds an adjective, because when it preceeds a noun it becomes the "extruded, excreted" meaning.

Then again I have been known to be wrong on more than one occasion. However that is the most common useage I glean from hearing it spoken.

The Royal Institute Dictionary appears to agree with Todd. Here is the relevant portion of the definition of "ขี้" which applies to the modifier usage of the word:

ขี้ . . . ว. [วิเศษณ์] ใช้ประกอบหน้าคําที่แสดงความหมายในทางที่ไม่ดี เช่น ขี้เกียจ ขี้เหนียว, หรือมักเป็นเช่นนั้น เช่น ขี้หัวเราะ ขี้ขอ.

"khee . . . a modifier used as a combining element in front of another word to indicate a meaning which is not good, for example, "to be lazy", "to be stingy" or some similar usage, for example, "to laugh too often", "to be constantly asking for things".