1.HHH

What it means to everyone else: Veteran WWE wrestler Paul Levesque, better known by the stage name Triple H/ HHH. The 49-year-old ex-bodybuilder is also known as ‘The Game’ and routinely spits water at fans. Somehow they think it’s cool. I think its unhygienic.

What it means to Singaporeans: Somewhat veteran protester Han Hui Hui (protesters have relatively short careers in Singapore) of the ‘Return My CPF’ protests.  Recently announced as part of M Ravi’s GRC team.

Use it in a sentence: “HHH and her tag team partner Roy Ngerng are at Hong Lim Park again  – do they think protesting is a game?”

2. Derisory

What it means to everyone else: From the oxford dictionary: ridiculously small or inadequate.

"they were given a derisory pay rise"

What it means to Singaporeans: An amount of money valued at $5,000 or lower.

How it got its meaning: In response to Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong’s lawyer’s defamation chargers, blogger Roy Ngerng offered to pay S$5,000 as compensation for damages. However, LHL’s lawyer Davinder Singh dismissed this amount as derisory.

Use it in a sentence: “I wanted to ask for $5,000 for my next job, but I was afraid my boss might have perceived this as derisory.”

3. Peanuts

What it means to everyone else: The peanut or groundnut is a species in the family Fabaceae. The peanut was probably first domesticated and cultivated in the valleys of Paraguay. It is an annual herbaceous plant growing 30 to 50 cm tall.

What it means to Singaporeans: An amount of money valued at $600,000 or lower.

How it got its meaning:  When it was revealed that ex-NKF chairman TT Durai earned $600,000 a year, Mrs Goh Chok Tong’s wife reportedly said that this amount was ‘peanuts.’ Well, I'd wish I had a peanut or two.

Use it in a sentence: “I struck Toto last week, but aiya, the prize was divided among 4 people, so what I got was peanuts.”

4. Ponding

What it means to most of the world: Google ‘ponding’, and this is the first thing you’ll see:

Ponding is the unwanted pooling of water, typically on a flat roof.

What it means to Singaporeans: A somewhat liberal way to describe flooding. As seen in this picture.

How it got its meaning: After the Great Floods of 2011 the Public Utilities Board (PUB) famously tried to play down the seriousness of the floods in Orchard Road by saying it was ‘ponding’ instead.

Singaporeans did not react well to this very liberal use of the word. Subsequently, Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Vivian Balakrishnan admitted that PUB should not have used the word "ponding."

Use it in a sentence: “Did you hear? 7 people drowned during the ponding last week in Japan. It was horrible.”

5. CSI

What it means to most of the world: Crime Scene Investigation. This can either refer to actual forensic science, or the popular franchise (woah, 15 seasons in three cities) where investigators solve unlikely crimes in within 41 - 45 minutes.

What it means to Singaporeans: A crowdsourced effort to stalk and dig up things about people online for the purposes of public shaming, ala Jover Chew and Anton Casey.

How it got its meaning: Probably from the Hardwarezone’s EDMW forum, where disagreements are common.

Use it in a sentence: “Eh, be careful, don’t anyhow write about these things, later kena CSI then you know.”

6. Harakiri

What it means to most of the world: The ancient Japanese suicide ritual of seppuku. That’s when a guy slices himself in his mid-section while someone cuts off his head. Cleanly. Most of the time, anyway.

What it means to Singaporeans: A punishment that should make a comeback. Obligatory Hara-kiri was abolished in 1868.

How it got its meaning: During one of the episodes of the AHPETC management saga, Health Minister Khaw Boon Wan reportedly said the following:

“In Japan, the CEO and board of directors will call a press conference and take a deep bow, and in the good old days, they may even commit hara-kiri.”

Use it in a sentence: “If the whole NKF saga had occurred in the ‘good old days’, the CEO might have had to commit harakiri.”

7. Heartlander:

What it means to most of the world: Absolutely nothing. The closest we have to it is ‘heartland’, and if you Google it, the word is defined as:

 

1. the central or most important part of a country, area, or field of activity.
2. "wildlife sites in the heartland of Russia"

   • the centre of support for a belief or movement.
   • "the heartland of the rebel cause"

What it means to Singaporeans: Ironically, heartlanders refer to the people that live in public housing – clearly not in the heartlands of Singapore if we use the international definition of the word.

Oh yes, there was also this TV show a couple of years back featuring heartthrobs Vincent Ng and Aaron Aziz.

Source

How it got its meaning: It was former PM Goh Chok Tong that popularised the term ‘heartlander’ during his 1999 National Day Rally speech. You can read the full speech here.

  [Heartlanders] make their living within the country. Their orientation and interests are local rather than international. Their skills are not marketable beyond Singapore. They speak Singlish. They include taxi-drivers, stallholders, provision shop owners, production workers and contractors. Phua Chu Kang is a typical heartlander. Another one is Tan Ah Teck. If they emigrate to America, they will probably settle in a Chinatown, open a Chinese restaurant and call it an "eating house".

Heartlanders play a major role in maintaining our core values and our social stability. They are the core of our society. Without them, there will be no safe and stable Singapore, no Singapore system, no Singapore brand name.

Use it in a sentence: See above. Plenty of sentences.

8. Underhappy

What it means to everyone else: Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

What it means to Singaporeans: Somewhere in between Happy and Unhappy. Though most would agree closer to unhappy.

How it got its meaning: As part of the new National Workplace Happiness survey, the Singapore Human Resources Institute (SHRI) and consulting firm Align Group collected responses of approximately 5,600 respondents last year.

Then, they found out that Singaporeans were ‘Under Happy.’ Bravo.

Use it in a sentence: "Janice caught her boyfriend cheating on her – she’s been crying alot – I suppose you could say she’s underhappy."

9. Co-driver

What it means to everyone else: A person that usually rides shotgun and assists the driver in navigation. 

What it means to Singaporeans: Someone who smacks you in the car if he/she is unhappy with your driving performance or map-reading skills (and if you are reading it upside down).

How it got its meaning: During the 2011 General Elections, WP’s Low Thia Khiang illuminated us on the true role of a co-driver:

“ The co-driver is there to slap the driver when he drives off course or when he falls asleep or drives dangerously."

Use it in a sentence: “I prefer to drive without a co-driver as I do not enjoy being answerable to someone."

10. White Horse

What it means to everyone else: This.

Also a Taylor Swift song.

What it means to Singaporeans: Most people think that 'White Horses' are national Servicemen that have special privileges as the result of ties to influential people.

But according to the SAF, the label's sole purpose was to ensure such enlistees were not given preferential treatment. Today, the label no longer exists.

How it got its meaning: Ripped from Wikipedia: White horses (which are rarer than other colours of horse) have a special significance in the mythologies of cultures around the world. Seems legit.  

Use it in a sentence: “We were all going to be punished. Thankfully we had a White Horse in our platoon, so we got off easy.”

11. Void Deck

What it means to everyone else: Nothing. But the term ‘Void Deck’ – which is just a fancy way of saying ‘empty space’ would sound perfectly natural in a Sci-Fi movie.

“We’re preparing the bow thrusters. Teleport us to the void deck so that we can initiate the download sequence.”

 “Sir, the enemy has infiltrated the void deck. I’ve dispatched Team Bravo to deal with the disturbance.”

“Left hull compromised. Shields at 30%. Damage to ship: irreparable. Evacuate everyone to the void deck and wait for further instructions.

What it means to Singaporeans: A shared space at the bottom of HDB flats that can be used for weddings, funerals and other events. Truly multifunctional.

How it got its meaning: Because it sounds so unnecessarily complex, I’m guessing someone went overboard with his thesaurus back in the day.

Use it in a sentence: “We wanted to book the void deck for our wedding, but that Ah Ma next passed away at the last minute. So cannot.”

12. Integrated Resort

What it means to everyone else: A resort that has many facilities and possibly integrated with some form of public transport, or other resorts. The same way you would perceive “integrated hospital”, “integrated train station” or “integrated police station".

What it means to Singaporeans: Clearly a euphemism for ‘casino.’

How it got its meaning: Back in the day (2005) Singaporeans were strongly opposed to casinos. So to soften the public sentiment, the future Marina Bay Sands and Resort World Sentosa were designated as IRs. You could say it was an adorable attempt by the government to smoke us.

It clearly didn’t work. 

Use it in a sentence: “I wanted to go to the IR to gamble, but I could not afford the cover charge.

13. 50 years

What it means to everyone else: 5 decades, or 50 cycles of 365 days.

What it means to Singaporeans: A period not exceeding one year. Alternatively, measure the intervals between Orchard Road’s floodings.

How it got its meaning: In November 2009 Singapore was struck with unusually massive floods (mild compared to Malaysia, but let’s face it – everything about Singapore is mild when compared to Malaysia).

Source: Grace Tai's Facebook  and here

Then Minister for the Environment and Water Resources Yaacob Ibrahim said that ..

“It is not possible... to plan for every event. Thursday's weather... occurs once in 50 years.”

Unfortunately for him, the floods continued the next few years. A legend was born.

Use it in a sentence: "Back in the good old days, minister's paychecks only increased once every 50 years."

14. STOMP 

What it means to everyone else: From Wikipedia: Stomp (also referred to as a stamp) is a downwards strike with the heel of the foot from the stand-up position, and is usually directed at the head or body of a downed opponent. Also a popular musical based in London.

What it means to Singaporeans: The last place you want to be featured online. It's where you get cyber-shamed for everything from being a woman to occupying seats on public transport, which is arguably more damaging to your life than getting actually getting stomped on my someone. Here's how to be a stellar STOMPER.

How it got its meaning: In an era when acronyms were losing their shine,  a certain state-owned media company created The Straits Times Online Media Portal – S.T.O.M.P

Use it in a sentence: "Eh, I don't dare to ask that Ah Beng to give up seat to me because I shy. Never mind, I just STOMP him and teach him a lesson...hehehe."

15. Red Dot

Source: Author's own red dot.

What it means to everyone else: A red dot.

What it means to Singaporeans: The small great country known to the world as the Republic of Singapore. 

How it came about: Since former Indonesian President B.J Habibie dismissed Singapore as a ‘red dot’ back in 1998, no other nickname for the city-state has been embraced more strongly with Singaporeans. A reference to Singapore’s diminutive size, a ‘red dot’ has come to be seen as the symbol of how we’ve overcome our physical limitations.

Use it in a sentence: I don’t need to. We love the name so much we even included that in the SG50 logo.

Thanks Habibie.  The logo could have looked alot worse than this if not for your inspiration. Imagine if they included the Merlion in it, lol.