Etymology Journal ยท C
Come on, chop chop!
Meaning
- This is a demand for someone to hurry up and move faster. It is a slightly impatient way to urge someone to stop stalling.
Impatient, bossy
Used in a sentence
- Come on, chop chop, we are already ten minutes late for the movie.
- The manager was standing by the door saying, come on, chop chop, get those boxes loaded.
- I told my son, come on, chop chop, put your shoes on so we can leave for school.
The backstory
The phrase is widely attributed to pidgin English used in maritime trade in the South China Sea. It eventually filtered into common American slang for general urgency.
Heard in
Nationwide
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