# Chop chop! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 15, 2007, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285 "2007-02-15T00:12:32Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Jaochai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2acd7d/32.png) [@Jaochai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jaochai)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/1 "2007-02-15T00:12:32Z")
After reading a certain webcomic and seeing this phrase used to hurry someone up, I have to wonder . . . what is the origin of the eponymous chop chop? How did this ultimate phrase of upper-class disdain come into being? And must one always clap the hands along with? ---
**Author:** ![Kimstu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 12:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/2 "2007-02-15T00:24:13Z")
It’s from a form of pidgin English derived largely from Chinese, in the 19th century. Andrew Moody, in his article “Transmission Languages and Source Languages of Chinese Borrowings in English” (_American Speech_, 1996), says that “A possible source for Pidgin _chop-chop_ is Chinese _gap_, ‘urgent’.” ---
**Author:** ![Si\_Amigo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/si_amigo/32/2877_2.png) [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/3 "2007-02-15T01:44:56Z")
[QUOTE=Jaochai] And must one always clap the hands along with? [/QUOTE] I’ve never seen anybody clap hands when saying chop-chop. The proper thing to do is to make two rapid karate type chops with one hand while saying chop-chop. 😉 I seem to recall first seeing this sterotype on the TV show [Bonanza](http://bonanzaworld.net/quickfacts.php?s=#hopsing) . The Chinese cook, Hop Sing always seemed to be carrying around a cooking utensil (sometimes a meat clever) and would be told to “hurry up, chop-chop”. ---
**Author:** ![stuyguy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ec9cab/32.png) [@stuyguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stuyguy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 4:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/4 "2007-02-15T04:12:27Z")
Some years ago I posted a question on the SDMB about the phrase, “chop-chop.” I always assumed it had a racist (anti-Chinese) stigma, but other people I’ve met said no, it doesn’t. I don’t recall exactly how the answer played out, but that old thread might prove informative. I’d dig it out for you, but I’m too busy righ now. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 4:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/5 "2007-02-15T04:14:50Z")
[QUOTE=stuyguy] Some years ago I posted a question on the SDMB about the phrase, “chop-chop.” I always assumed it had a racist (anti-Chinese) stigma, but other people I’ve met said no, it doesn’t. I don’t recall exactly how the answer played out, but that old thread might prove informative. I’d dig it out for you, but I’m too busy right now. [/QUOTE] Too busy? 😕 Get on with it, man! … Chop chop! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 11:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/6 "2007-02-15T11:20:53Z")
_Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang_ says it’s 19th-century Chinese pidgin and derives from the Chinese _k’wâi k’wâi_. _Collins English Dictionary_ says much the same thing except that it states the original was the Cantonese _kap kap_. ---
**Author:** ![FRDE](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e68b1a/32.png) [@FRDE](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FRDE)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/7 "2007-02-15T12:10:13Z")
[QUOTE=Colophon] _Cassell’s Dictionary of Slang_ says it’s 19th-century Chinese pidgin and derives from the Chinese _k’wâi k’wâi_. _Collins English Dictionary_ says much the same thing except that it states the original was the Cantonese _kap kap_. [/QUOTE] _k’wâi k’wâi_ looks to me like ‘Devil Devil’ but probably those accents make it sound entirely different. I once did a little survey, in Singapore, on the various Chinese pronunciations of Ang Mao Kwai (red headed devil (?) ) and they were all radically different. ---
**Author:** ![China\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/779978/32.png) [@China\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/China_Guy)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/8 "2007-02-15T14:47:08Z")
in modern pinyin, it’s ‘kuai kuai’ or fast fast. chop chop should be a bastardized English crude approximation of the Cantonese. ---
**Author:** ![Zeldar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/b77776/32.png) [@Zeldar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zeldar)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/9 "2007-02-15T15:30:43Z")
Is the “chop” from the same source as in “chop suey” perhaps? I think I remember that “chop suey” is an American English term for some Chinese food leftovers made into a sort of stew and served to non-Chinese customers in Chinese restaurants on the West Coast. I do recall that in the Chinese restaurants in Birmingham back in the 50’s that Chop Suey was on their menus. No big surprise, since they also provided fortune cookies, another non-Chinese item. ---
**Author:** ![minlokwat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minlokwat/32/2844_2.png) [@minlokwat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minlokwat)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/10 "2007-02-15T15:52:42Z")
[QUOTE=Jaochai] what is the origin of the eponymous chop chop? [/QUOTE] Picking nits and jacking hi (there’s one in every thread) Who’s “Chop”? eponymous = word derived from a specific person’s name; examples: sandwich, bowdlerize, boycott. Chop chop as eponym? No, no. ---
**Author:** ![Jodi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/7feea3/32.png) [@Jodi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jodi)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/11 "2007-02-15T16:10:03Z")
[QUOTE=Jaochai] What is the origin of the eponymous chop chop? How did this ultimate phrase of upper-class disdain come into being? And must one always clap the hands along with? [/QUOTE] Re the second question: I never understood “chop chop” to have anything to do with “upper class disdain;” it just means “hurry up.” At least it did in our family: “Get in the car! Chop chop!” And no hand clapping either. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/12 "2007-02-15T16:26:05Z")
I understood “eponymous” to refer to the title of the thread: “Chop chop!” ---
**Author:** ![Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ccd318/32.png) [@Carnac\_the\_Magnificent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Carnac_the_Magnificent)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2007, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/chop-chop/392285/13 "2007-02-15T17:57:27Z")
Years ago in Hong Kong, I saw an elderly Brit, resplendent in white suit, give this instruction to the man who was pulling his … rickshaw. It was straight from an old Nancy Kwan film. A hell of a site.