farangnahrak Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 I was talking to this lady about my motorbike, and she said something about 'ขับสิ่ง' (spelling is probably wrong, I'm just guessing here). Then she made a hand gesture that looked like weaving back and forth. Anyone know what 'sing' means? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolf5370 Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 ขับ แซง perhaps? Overtaking vehicle - driving past a vehicle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farangnahrak Posted January 26, 2011 Author Share Posted January 26, 2011 It was definitely 'sing', not 'saeng'. DavidHouston, who has a propensity to send IMs more often than forum replies, sent me: See http://www.thai-language.com/id/141749 , second definition. The word is a diminutive of the English word "racing" and is used to describe Thai teen illegal street racing. Although, the lady isn't the type to say anything negative/diminutive, so maybe that definition isn't quite right . . . plus, I'm already far into my 20's, and don't act like a เด็กเวน Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mikenyork Posted January 26, 2011 Share Posted January 26, 2011 ฃิ่ง sing from racing means driving fast and recklessly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
harrry Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 or was Sing as in Singha. Ride drunk. But why was it kup drive and not kii as in ride. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
farangnahrak Posted January 27, 2011 Author Share Posted January 27, 2011 But why was it kup drive and not kii as in ride. hmmmm good point . . . I was using the word ขับ in the conversation, and maybe she just used it as a continuation of my farang way of saying things incorrectly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SimonN Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 But why was it kup drive and not kii as in ride. hmmmm good point . . . I was using the word ขับ in the conversation, and maybe she just used it as a continuation of my farang way of saying things incorrectly I often hear the phrase "ขับรถ" to mean "ride motorbike". "ขับ" seems to be a common way to say "ride". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
meadish_sweetball Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 <br />It was definitely 'sing', not 'saeng'.<br /><br />DavidHouston, who has a propensity to send IMs more often than forum replies, sent me:<br /><font color="#1C2837"><font size="2">See <a href='http://www.thai-language.com/id/141749' class='bbc_url' title='External link' rel='nofollow external'>http://www.thai-language.com/id/141749</a> , second definition. The word is a diminutive of the English word "racing" and is used to describe Thai teen illegal street racing.</font></font><br /> <br /><font color="#1C2837"><font size="2">Although, the lady isn't the type to say anything negative/diminutive, so maybe that definition isn't quite right . . . plus, I'm already far into my 20's, and don't act like a เด็กเวน </font></font><img src="http://static.thaivisa.com/forum/public/style_emoticons/default/cool.gif" /><br /><br /><br /><br />I am sure David's explanation is right, it is a very common expression for driving fast and recklessly. You may have missed the rest of what she said, perhaps she was just suggesting that you be careful, or she was not talking about you at all, but about somebody else, or the Thai traffic in general? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peppy Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 See http://www.thai-language.com/id/141749 , second definition. The word is a diminutive of the English word "racing" and is used to describe Thai teen illegal street racing. While "diminutive" might be accurate here, it also carries connotations to me of being rather "cutesy"--but there's nothing intentionally cutesy about the shortening of "racing" to "sing", it's just what happens to a lot of English words when they become widely used in the Thai language. "Sing" isn't at all limited to kids' illegal street racing either--it's widely known and used by people of all ages to describe what Mikenyork defines as: ฃิ่ง sing from racing means driving fast and recklessly. Which is much closer to a perfect definition--except "sing" is spelled ซิ่ง, with sor soh (ซ), not "king" with khor khuat (ฃ). I should also point out that "sing" is used to describe modified or "sport" model vehicles that appear to be capable of being driven fast, regardless of whether they actually are, as well as people whose manner and style of dress make them seem like the kind of person who would drive recklessly--again, regardless of whether or not they actually do. As for whether to use khap (ขับ) or khee (ขี่) for motorbikes, they're generally interchangeable--just like "drive" and "ride" are in English. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikker Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Nice responses--though like Peppy I'd like to take issue with thai-language.com's use of "diminutive." This appears to be an incorrect use of the word. A diminutive form doesn't mean a shortened form, a diminutive form is a derived form that indicates a lesser degree of the original word. That can be either literally smaller/younger, or else figuratively small/cute/endearing. These are common in Spanish, for example, with -ito/-ita (among other endings): señora (Mrs.) > señorita (Ms.); poco (a little) > poquito (a smidgen). The shortening of 'racing' ซิ่ง is more like an example of apheresis. The unstressed portion of the word, in this case the entire first syllable, is dropped, and only the stressed part remains. It's not a diminutive form, if we are to use the commonly understood sense of the term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Murf Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 Are you sure the first word was "kap" and not "boom" ? The hand gesture seems to suggest as much Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
krading Posted January 27, 2011 Share Posted January 27, 2011 I'm pretty sure it describes the action of weaving in and out of traffic, as most thai drivers do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tod Daniels Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 (edited) Using Google-Thailand with the thai term; “ขับซิ่ง” brought up 2.7 MILLION hits in 0.11 seconds. A brief perusal of the topic headers show this is a VERY COMMON term for many types of racing sports (drift, drag, etc). It also carries the connotation of reckless driving as evidenced by the many pix of wrecked cars and mangled dead bodies. I think the puzzle is sol-ved by the answers you've been provided with. FWIW: when I learned the difference between ขับ and ขี่ long ago; my thai teacher explained that anything which you 'straddle' (goes between your legs) you ขี่ (bicycles, motocy's, horses, buffaloes, etc) and anything you get into or sit in a regular 'chair' type seat you ขับ (cars, trucks, tractors, etc). I have heard thais use ขับ interchangeably with ขี่ in common speech, so it appears the usage of these words isn't nearly as cut into stone as some other words are. Edited January 28, 2011 by tod-daniels Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rikker Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 Just a note about Google searches--because of the way they do the searching, you really have to put a phrase in quotes to get an accurate idea of how many true hits there are. If you put "ขับซิ่ง" into Google in quote marks, just now it returned 107,000 hits. That's much more realistic. For a phrase with numbers of hits in this range, we can safely say the term is commonly used, but it of course pales in comparison to phrases like "ความรู้" which when searched in quotes returns 80,000,000 hits! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tod Daniels Posted January 28, 2011 Share Posted January 28, 2011 You're right of course. When I search for engrish phrases I always use quotes. I neglected to use quotes with this thai term and noticed some of the hits were with the words split apart, often even in different sentences. Sorry about that, I stand humbly erected, err corrected. Still, at least we agree "ขับซิ่ง" is a term commonly used.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Create an account or sign in to comment
You need to be a member in order to leave a comment
Create an account
Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!
Register a new accountSign in
Already have an account? Sign in here.
Sign In Now