Sobra and the lingo of our times

Parbol. I bet nobody from today’s generation or even the generation before would know what that means.

Parbol is a term – part of pre-war street lingo – that means bum. Unfortunately, I have no clue as to its etymology, but it eventually evolved into pambraun that eventually became kanto boy (because bums converge in street corners where they spend most of their meaningless lives), which is the same as istambay (from standby) that had now been shortened to tambay.

Most colloquial terms that invade the Tagalog language I think are invented by the youth sector that loves to come up with a glossary only they would understand (but that would eventually be picked up by the rest of society).

The most successful in this aspect – I’d like to think – were the youngsters of the mid-’60s who interchanged the syllables in practically every other word and some of these are still in use today: Pogi, go-li (from ligo) de-hins (hindi), etc. En-ka (from kain) was used by a lot of youngsters then (because everyone ate) but it was immediately replaced by chibog, which came from bo-chi, which must have been subo (to take in food), but inverted.

Two phenomenally popular mid-’60s expressions are hardly in use today and you can actually tell the age of a person still using these words: Walastik and walandyo.

Walastik and walandyo are twin words that are often used together – sometimes interchangeable. Back then, you said: "Walastik, ha! Walandyo!" The closest translation I can think of is "Awesome!"

The ’70s youth also had their own contribution to street lingo and part of their legacy are two words that are still in use today: One is baduy, which means off-sync when it comes to a person’s manner of dressing or the way a person speaks and carries himself. The other word is kulit, which I can imagine came from the Tagalog maulit (repetitive – meant to describe children who commit the same mischief). "Maulit kang bata ka!" – elders would scold their kids before. Starting in the ’70s, parents have become hip and now they still say "makulit!"

Chimay (househelp) also sprouted in the ’70s. This has evolved into chimi-a-a or even maid of honor and Maid of Cotton (a beauty title back then). I’m just so relieved that we’ve finally found a less demeaning term for these great people who do housework for us: Kasambahay.

Earlier – sometime in 1972 – Ariel Ureta, then the No. 1 television star, started coining cutesy phrases like "Ang gleng-gleng mo..." and that caught on with the young viewers. But after that, I doubt if the kids of Ariel Ureta ever used that phrase.

Toward the late ’70s came the colegiala English – you know, "Let’s make tusok-tusok the fishballs." For a while, this was being attributed to Toni Rose Gayda, who was enrolled in Assumption then. But I cannot for the life of me imagine Toni Rose speaking that way. Maybe she got the credit (or discredit?) for this because even then she was already very pretty and stood out among the rest of humanity – Assumptionistas included.

The ’80s so gaily welcomed gayspeak complete with a gay anthem (released by Vicor) called Badaf Forever! This was also the era when fan magazines – all in Taglish – were sprouting practically every other week and these publications contributed a lot to the propagation of gay lingo. And so we had flanak! flanggana! and other gay expressions that are no longer used today – probably not even in the gayest of beauty salons.

In show business, Lolit Solis introduced a word that is now fast diminishing in popularity: Tsugi. Tsugi can mean a lot of things. If a show gets canceled, you say, "Na-tsugi na ang show." On a morbid note, you can also use it to say, "Na-tsugi na ang kanyang jowa (another gay expression that means spouse)." Basically, I think tsugi means the end of something.

But sometimes, tsugi can also get naughty. For instance, you can say "nag-tsugihan sila" – meaning they got intimate. It’s a very versatile word, but is fast dying and I hardly hear Lolit use it in our conversations in Startalk every Saturday.

It was also in the late ’80s when the names of personalities from showbiz and even high society were included in the gay vocabulary: Luz Valdez was used to mean lost or defeated: "Na-Luz Valdez siya kagabi sa FAMAS." There are also variations to this by saying Lucita Soriano or Violeta Naluz, a Binibining Pilipinas winner who lost (although she must have tried her best) when she competed in the Miss Universe pageant.

Using the names of popular figures continued till the ’90s (up to now I still hear people use Luz Valdez, although it’s now fast being replaced by the term na-lost). Jullie Yap meant "got caught" or Na-Jullie Yap.

But going back to the ’80s – early ’80s actually – a term coined that time and is still in existence today is yagit or poor. Of course, some people now prefer to say poor-doy or even dukha, which is very Tagalog.

Going strong, of course, is bagets, which was a very young word in the early ’80s. It’s still very much in use today – along with taray, which has haughtily survived the test of time.

A phrase that was born in the early ’80s, but may just be officially incorporated into our language is "sa tutoo lang." This was first immortalized on film by Gina Pareño in an early scene in Working Girls. Later, it was used as a title of a film, starring Ms. Pareño, along with Gloria Diaz and Carmi Martin.

The early ’90s brought gamol (popularized by Andrew E.), guwaping and later jologs. Only jologs is still in existence and from time to time, I still hear people using guwaping – but never in reference to me (maybe that’s why I hardly hear it used).

Now that we are in the new millennium, I am a bit bothered – annoyed actually – whenever I hear the word sobra used excessively (I know that’s redundant).

Sobra, of course, is not a new word. It’s Spanish that means excess or surplus. About a decade ago, youngsters began using that to replace napaka – plus the adjective. And so instead of saying napaka-dumi, they say sobrang dumi. Napakaganda has become sobrang ganda.

So far, I don’t use it (maybe because I’m not young anymore) and I hope it goes away in time. Watching television now and hearing bagets stars peppering their sentences with sobrang bait . . . sobrang bango . . . sobrang whatever can really be irritating. It’s already nakaka-inis. Sobra!