Wysteria Blend
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Toothpaste in TagalogAfter discussing what SCUBA stands for (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Aparatus) and what LASER stands for (Light Amplification by the Simulation of Emitted Radiation) over fruitshakes at Tiendesitas (Pau, fyi, the letters SOS do not refer to any words, however they can stand for "Save Our Ship" or "Survivors On Ship", basta these are just developments to remember the morse code SOS), Pau presented us with a question which, if we get the answer, he will pay P100. Hati kami ni Faye, pangkape-kape.
The question is "What is toothpaste in Tagalog?" Grabe naman, ang hirap!
As promised, I will find the translation of "toothpaste" in Tagalog, else I will prove in a blog entry why the answer is what I think it is, "tutpeyst" or "Colgate"! This is no longer about the money, it's about finding the answer so I can just peacefully go to sleep.
I conducted a text brigade and this is what people said: (Thank you to all those who answered!)
Bam - "Tootpeyst"
Wappy and Ate Boom - "Tutpeyst"
Mike - "Tut payst"Ate Pebs - "Kolgeyt"
Mars (the pilosopo) - "ngiping pandikit" (as predicted); also said "Beam" and "Pepsodent"
Kuya Dondon (the dentist) - "there's no translation for toothpaste in Tagalog"
Kuya Dondi (the bolero) - "gawgaw"
Jay - "Sabon pangngipin" or "Kolgeyt"
Ton, Teng, Thomas, Ericka - "don't know"
Kuya Nicky and Willow - "Colgate"
Tita Desiree and Hope (a smart mother and daughter team who checked the dictionary before answering) - "Tutpeyst" or "Colgate"
According to http://www.bohol.ph/diksyunaryo.php, the Philippine Online Dictionary, "toothpaste" in Filipino is "tutpeyst" and in Cebuano is "Colgate".
I therefore conclude that there is no truly Filipino translation/term for toothpaste. Why?
1. According to Bam the resident nerd, Toothpaste was not created in the Philippines. It was only introduced to us so no truly Filipino term was created for it. Only in the 90s was the term "toothpaste" or "tutpeyst" commonly used by Filipinos for the thing you put on your toothbrush to clean your teeth. Before that many would simply refer to it as Colgate, as some people would say (and this is based on a true experience in the late 80s), "Anong Colgate ang gamit mo? Kasi I use Pepsodent!"
2. Likewise, there are no exact English terms for words like "gigil" or "kilig". Just proving a point.
3. We learned in our Filipino wika classes in grade school that there are many words commonly used that have no truly Filipino translation because these have been adapted into our language through our own alphabet. Words such as:Cake - "keyk"Magazine - "magasin"Taxi - "taksi"Radio - "radyo"Television - "telebisyon"Camera - kamera (which, going back to point number 1, in the 80s was referred to as "Kodak", "taking a picture" as "pangongodak", "photo lab" as "kodakan")
Based on everyone's answers above and the points I raised, "toothpaste" in Tagalog is "tutpeyst" or "Colgate". While there is no authentic translation, everybody uses it, thinks it, and knows that "tutpeyst" and/or "Colgate" is the Tagalog translation of "toothpaste".
So Pau, being the drop that started the ripple, just smile and agree with me on this, because the fact that I racked my brain to write this thing only means boto ako sa'yo for Faye... so we're both satisfied and I can now go to sleep.
