Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Hawaiian Word of the Week (and very overdue!)

Okay, so i haven't really felt inspired to update the word of the week lately--probably because my contact with the locals has been minimal as of lately. But, no worries--back in the school system I get to hear my fair share of pidgin, and oh do i ever have a word for you.

Yesterday, one of our EA's (education assistant, i believe) in the preschool class had to leave early to go help her daughter who had just been physically assaulted on The Bus (Hawaii's public transportation system). What happened was a supposed schizo lady got on the bus acting very strange and after a few minutes of riding she off and punched the girl in her face. The Bus of course pulled over and called the police--the lady already had other outstanding warrants and was arrested on the spot. The daughter is okay--just shaken up, a little scared to ride the bus now, and has a black eye.

My version of the story is merely a translation from the conversation among the EA's in the room. It went something like this..hopefully i can do it justice.

EA1: Whaddsdascoops?
EA 2: Da Kine daughter got false crack in da face
EA1: Not! Fo' real?
EA2: Some lolo woman got on da Bus at Wahiawa--ya know dem people there. Dey say she wuz tweekin' and touchin her face an hair an den outta nowheres she false crack 'er

The word we will focus on is False Crack. It took me a little while to actually figure out what had happened to the girl--i came to the assumption she was punched, and after coming home and looking it up, i was right.


False Crack; A Hawaiian slang term meaning a punch to the face and, from what I thought, often done without much more than a verbal warning at most. A surprise punch that catches the recipient at least somewhat off-guard.

Also just to "false" or getting "falsed"
Also "dirty cracks" or "dirty lickings"

ex: Dey wuz arguing for so long until James jus wen false crack em!!!
You betta watch yo' mout or you gonna get one false crack, bra.


**courtesy of the Urban Dictionary and my own personal experiences!**

1 comment:

Kimberly and Jordan said...

Now you see why I was always scared to ride the bus to work! Love the phrase though.