Maybe it is "letch" but I frequently hear the exclamation on people who don't speak English. People in my country often call them the uneducated. So I don't think they really mean the "letch" word but the "Leche" of Spanish--since it's the language that stuck to us Filipinos the most. Well, some Filipinos hate deviating from what is right and polite thus instead of saying anything rude, we say something else.
An example is, for others who would like to use the profanity like "puta", they say "putik" instead since saying the latter would be very rude and against our morals. So yeah, we might have just adopted the word for milk from our Spanish conquerors to say anything but the profanity that is usually used. After all, Spanish was once one of our language before the modern Filipino was born. Thanks for this discussion. I learned something new!
I knew "leche" had the same meaning as milk in English, but I had never heard that it was used as a bad word. I will ask my colleague from Colombia tomorrow to see if they have a similar usage that you are describing. Indeed, the word "letse" is a Filipino word that connotes bad things. In fairness to Hatley she has a very good point there but I believe " letse " comes from Spanish word letche as owlwings said and thanks to his reference the idiomatic uses of 'leche' in 'low language' Spanish , because this words has been used here by our ancestors in the Philippines centuries before the Americans came here.
Leche is a Spanish word for "milk" and we Filipinos, might have just associated it with cursing and procrastinating because according to a Filipno host by the name of Joey de Leon, Spaniards always tell the kids "Go home and drink your leche! I have no idea.
Perhaps,it is a part of phrase that we dropped off over time. We really couldn't tell to what this word really means to us Filipinos though it is really associated to bad word or to swear someone. I asked a Mexican friend about it once, and he told me that it was because the word comes from a slang term for semen.
We had a lot of students from Mexico at my high school, and they would swear up a storm in Spanish just to see what they could get away with because most of the teachers couldn't understand them.
The ones that knew some basic vocabulary usually wouldn't get the "real" meaning of what they were saying when they used words like leche. That reminds me of a conversation one of those students had with my English teacher my sophomore year: "Hey, Mr.
That's nice. Eres sacapuntas. The Philippines and Mexico were sister cities during the the Galleon trade so what you say is possible, we just sort of lost track as to milk being in a way related to mean semen and what's left of it now is just a cuss word obviously after a hundred pus years , so is it evaporada or condensada? Sorry, I meant Manila was a sister city, my apologies. I know the consequences of using at least that word very much.
I had seen it with my own eyes how adults disapprove of such behavior. No, the one who said the word is not me. I can't help but depend on the meaning of the word in Spanish because the word is Spanish to begin with. Though borrowed, the Filipino meaning of "Leche" or "Letse" is still one and the same with the Spanish meaning. I guess that it has become a metaphor of semen. I've checked it and I was right. I believe the word is related to something that relates to "milk". But we Filipinos are good in coining words, I believe this word have been passed from generation to generation.
Not to mention that it was oriented to us, as a negative word. My aunt used to tell this everytime she is frustrated of something. Hello, mikyung!
I would like to know though, since you said that your aunt used to say that word when she's frustrated, whether you asked your aunt for the meaning of the word. I know I asked my elders but they didn't give any explanation or the full meaning of the word--considering that I was still less than 9 years old, I think, when I asked.
So now that it came up to me again, I am now asking people, especially Filipinos online as to what that word is since when I researched, I was only given the Spanish term and all I can get was that it is a blasphemy or profanity of sorts. I am familiar with the Spanish word Leche, but I have never heard it used as a slang for anything.
The nearest I can relate to is the use of lech as an abbreviated form for a lecherous person, but that would qualify as derogatory rather than rude. I guess they have mistaken the our use of Leche , a Spanish word with the English word lecher. Usage: "Hudas talaga 'yang mga pulitiko na 'yan.
Usage: "Sobrang boring magturo ng lintik na prof na 'to. Variations: Kaululan, ulul, bulol Usage: "You can't spell 'ulol' without 'u'. Variations: Gaga for women , Gagi, Ogag, Kagaguhan referring to acts of foolishness Usage: "Gago ka pala eh, niloloko ka na kinikilig ka pa.
Variations: Tado Usage: "Pasimba-simba ka pa d'yan eh tarantado ka rin naman. Often refers to someone or something that's a nuisance and brings bad luck. Variations: Bwiset, Buset Usage: "Bwiset 'yung taxi driver, ayaw magsakay! Variations: Lechugas Usage: "Leche, commercial na naman! Another word for stupid; a more derogatory term for ignorant.
Usage: "Walang forever, ungas! Usage: "Punyeta ang alat na naman ng ulam namin. Variations: Hayop, Hayup Usage: "Makaka-move-on din ako sayong hinayupak ka! Usage: "Ang bagal ng WiFi pesteng yawa naman! We do know that the Spaniards did not really want Filipinos to learn Spanish, but the natives caught on to their overlords' language anyway, albeit incompletely and inaccurately. In this case, they probably got the "milk" part and that part only -- but appropriated it nonetheless for their own use.
It's also entirely possible, of course, that some just purposefully shortened the phrase to make it more emphatic and more punchy while at the same time avoiding the use of the potty word cago. Hence, many Filipinos now commonly say " Leche! And when they want to direct their ire to a specific person or persons, they say, quite nonsensically, " Leche ka!
They do know one thing: That when they're yelling these intended obscenities, they want to give the recipients some measure of hell. As to the recipients, they can only wish, quite understandably, that the Second Coming is indeed nigh. Got a question for The Filipino? Email him now at askthepinoy gmail.
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