Same words, different meanings....

I remember this was one of the first things a friend of mine pointed out when he came back to KK for holiday from studying in KL.

Be careful with the phrases that we love to use back home whenever we're in KL.

He told us the story about his good friend who was, one fine day, chatting with another friend of theirs.

"Good friend" thought that whatever "another friend" had said was outrageous.

Like how he (and many others back home) like to react, he just yelled out "Pantat kau lah!"

(Literally translated, at least to Sabahans, that means "Your butt lah.")

As soon as he had blurted that out, a friend of his from the peninsula quickly asked him to pipe down.

Whispering to him, the "peninsula friend" said: "Shhh... do you know what pantat means?"

"Good friend" obviously answered that it referred to the rear end.

However, "peninsula friend" said that was not the case, at least not in Peninsular Malaysia.

Apparently, "pantat" means another "end" for people West of the South China Sea.

It means a woman's, err... you know... Ummm.... (to quote Russell Peters) Her "poom poom."

Another friend of mine whom I think studied in Kuching or something had this to say about the same word.

Apparently, "pantat" means "to have sexual intercourse" in Sarawak.

I don't know how accurate these are but hey, that's what my friends told me.

That is one reason why I make a conscious effort NOT to ever use the phrase "pantat kau lah" anywhere outside of Sabah.

You never know how it might be interpreted in other parts of the country.

Another word I found that had a different meaning here in Peninsular Malaysia is "kelmarin."

It means "the day before yesterday" over here as opposed to "yesterday" back home in Sabah.

For "yesterday", the accepted word here in the peninsula is "semalam."

As far as I know, both "semalam" and "kelmarin" both mean the same thing back home.

I don't know about Sarawak though.

If you've read this far, then chances are I made the right choice leading off today's post with "pantat."

Had I started off with "kelmarin", I probably would have lost your interest by the fourth line.

Heheh... clever of me huh?