Some English Words of Filipino Origin

an essay by Roger B Rueda

Abaca  A large plant from whose leaves manila hemp is produced. It’s related to bananas. It is used to produce canvas, rope, paper, and cloth.

Adobo A dish of marinated meat or vegetables seasoned with vinegar, garlic, soy sauce, and spices.

Alogbati An annual plant widely cultivated for its edible purple stems and dark green leaves. It’s pronounced as [alogbátee].

Amalanhig A dead person brought back to life again and again and can only truly die when someone comes into this power.

Anahau  A tall palm yielding a prised wood used for golf clubs, a fibre used for bowstrings, and leaves used for thatching and for hats and fans.

Aswang Somebody who eats human flesh.

Azkal An animal or plant that is a mixture of different breeds or strains. It can also mean as a combination or mixture of different people or things, especially one that seems particularly strange.

Bacauan  An evergreen tree or bush with straight willowy stems and entwined roots that are exposed at low tide.

Bagat A dog or cat or any big animal believed to be an aswang which attacks somebody suddenly from a concealed position.

Bagoong  Fermented fish paste, a soft mass or mixture with a consistency between a liquid and a solid.

Bahay-kubo A house made of bamboo and thatched with cogon.

Bagyo A violent tropical storm in the Philippines.

Balut It’s a duck embryo matured to 15-18 days and then cooked. It is commonly eaten with salt and vinegar and can be purchased from vendors who walk the streets of neighbourhoods at night yelling, ‘Baluuuut!’

Banca A small, often open vessel for travelling on water.

Bangus A large toothless silver fish related to herring and salmon. Sometimes, it’s deboned and cooked as sinigang or fried bangus. It’s pronounced as [bəng gus].

Barangay A village, especially when considered as the smallest political unit. It’s pronounced as [bárrəngày].

Batchoy A noodle soup made with pork organs, crushed pork cracklings, shrimp, vegetables, chicken stock, chicken breast, beef loin, and round noodles. Its origins can be traced to the district of La Paz, Iloilo City, hence it is oftentimes referred to as La Paz batchoy. It’s pronounced as [bat chóy].

Bayani Somebody who commits an act of remarkable bravery or who has shown an admirable quality such as great courage or strength of character.

Boondocks A place regarded as out-of-the-way, local, and lacking intricacy.

Calalau A winnower made of bamboo, to separate grain from its husks chaff by tossing it in the air.

Calamondin/Calamansi The small tart orange-yellow fruit of a citrus tree.

Camote A fleshy orange root cooked and eaten as a vegetable or a plant producing fleshy edible tubers.

Capiz A small mollusc with a hinged shell.

Carabao A large buffalo with a grey-black coat and long backward-curving horns.

Cogon A coarse tall grass used as thatching.

Cootie A louse of the kind that infests people.

Dagmay A perennial plant cultivated for its edible starchy tubers, ample stalks, and leaves. It’s pronounced as [dag mī].

Dugong A large plant-eating sea mammal, related to the manatee. It has a two-lobed tail, a cleft upper lip, forelimbs resembling flippers, and tusks in the male. It’s pronounced as [dóo gàwng].

Durian A foul-smelling but deliciously flavoured fruit.

Ginamos Fermented and desiccated shrimp paste. It’s pronounced as [gínna mōz].

Gulaman A red alga that is one of the chief sources of agar.

Hablon A fine thread of a natural material that can be spun into yarn.

Halo-halo A sweet  dessert made of colourful tapioca, nata de coco, ube jam, gelatin, leche flan, ice cream, and  pinipig, and flavoured with a variety of fruits or other extracts, with crushed ice.

Inasal Meat or fish in large cuts brushed with annatto and lemongrass juice and cooked on a skewer.

Jeepney A jeep or similar vehicle that has been converted into a jitney, used as a form of public transportation. It is one of the main causes of air pollution in the Philippines.

Kahoy A woody perennial plant that grows to a height of several feet and typically has a single erect main stem with side branches.

Kundiman A musical composition about love.

Langka A tree that produces jaks and fine-grained yellowish wood; also its fruit.

Lauan The light yellow to reddish-brown or brown wood.

Mabuhay It's used as a greeting or farewell.

Macapuno The fruit of the coconut palm, consisting of a hard fibrous husk around a single-seeded nut with firm white flesh that is eaten raw or dried to make copra and a full core containing sweet-tasting liquid coconut milk.

Machin A sturdily built and long-tailed greyish brown monkey.

Manananggal  A mythical scary vampire-like creature (as opposed to an aswang), capable of severing its upper torso in order to fly into the night with huge bat-like wings to prey on unsuspecting, pregnant women in their homes. Using an elongated proboscis-like tongue, it sucks the hearts of foetuses or the blood of an unsuspecting, sleeping victim. It is known to whip its hair in urban forests, causing hurricanes all over the globe. The severed lower torso is left standing, and it is said to be the more vulnerable of the two halves. Sprinkling salt or smearing crushed garlic or ash on top of the standing torso is fatal to the creature. The upper torso then would not be able to rejoin and will die at daybreak.

Manila A kind of paper.

Nipa/Nipah A palm tree that produces nipa leaves, fruit, and the sap from which the drink nipa is made.

Paksiw A dish of fish, for instance bangus, or meat with vinegar.

Pandan/Pandanus A plant resembling a palm, with prop roots and a crown of narrow leaves. It’s used for mat-making.

Panguingue A 19th-century gambling card game.

Patadyong A skirt worn by women. It has kaleidoscopic colours and graphically accessible patterns.

Pawican/Pawikan A large turtle with limbs shaped like paddles. It’s pronounced as [pa wíkən].

Pedicab A pedal-operated tricycle with a seat in front for the driver and a passenger seat behind covered by a hood.

Pilit A sticky rice.

Pinipig A roasted and pounded half-ripe rice.  

Salacot A broad-brimmed hat woven from strips of cane or from palm leaves.

Sinigang A dish of meat or fish with radish, taro crom, string beans, aubergine, and tamarind juice.

Tamarau A small rare buffalo. It’s native to swamps of Mindoro.

Tamawo A supernatural being, usually resembling a person, with magic powers.

Tao A person, regardless of sex or age. It’s pronounced as [tow].

Tricycle A motorcycle with a sidecar, a kind of box with wheels which one can attach to the side of a motorcycle so that he/she can carry a passenger in it.

Ube A vine tuber with purple flesh. It’s commonly made as jam. It’s pronounced as [óobi].

Ylang-ylang A tree with flowers that yield a fragrant oil used in perfumery.

Yo-yo A toy consisting of a long string wound onto a spool that is dropped and raised repeatedly using the force of gravity and momentum to unwind and rewind the string.