Tag: trini phrases

Trini Phrase: Doux-Doux

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  • Doudou, doodoo, doux-doux (n): Sweetness; sweetie; a term of affectionate endearment, usually used to females. (French doux ‘sweet’; such repetition is common in French Creole, but some reduplicated forms of doux, including as a term of affection, are historically found in the east and north-east of France, Aud-Buscher 1989:13; also possibly Yoruba dun ‘is sweet’ = dood(s).
    • “Ah…done tell mih wifey wot to do when I die.  Ah tell she, ‘Doo-Doo gyul, when I die, please bury min wit’ a bottle in each hand” (Sweetbread, Express 21 July  1982:42).

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Word of the Week: Jam-cram

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  • Jam-cram  (adj):  Crowded; packed usually with people. (English jam ‘press, squeeze or crowd together in a compact mass; force together’ + English cram ‘fill to excess’) = ram-cram, ram-jam.
    • Everybody was jam-cram in the North Stand.
      • North Stand: During Carnival, a temporary spectators’ gallery erected on the north side of the big stage in Queen’s Park Savannah.  I remember fondly going to many ah carnival events in the North Stand with fellas beating bottle and spoon.  North Stand is often considered the place for common folk while the Grand Stand is reserved for the “who’s, who” of Trinidad.
      • Queen’s Park Savannah is a park in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago. Known locally as simply “the Savannah,” it is Port of Spain’s largest open space. It occupies about 260 acres (110 ha)[1] of level land, and the distance around the perimeter is about 2.2 mi (3.5 km).

Click here now for other Trini expressions and leave us a comment below of phrases you have heard.

Source: Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago by Lise Winer

Featured Image by minoll on DeviantArt.com

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Crab walking on Sand

Trini Phrase: If crab walk

Categories Culture2 Comments on Trini Phrase: If crab walk
  • If crab walk (phr):  A proverbial expression indicating that if you do not take some risks, you will not gain anything, but if you take too many risks, you may end up in trouble.
    • If crab don’ walk, he no get fat, but if he walk too much he go de pot no?

I have lived in the United States for 20 years now, and every time I travel back to Trinidad and Tobago, I have to reacquaint myself with the words and phrases that have evolved.
If crab walk is another interesting slang I heard growing up in Trinidad and Tobago.

Trini folklore such as Papa Bois is an oral tradition meant to pass on the stories to the next generation. Other Trini phrases in the vernacular are Waving Gallery, Jhorts, Sprawl Off, Doux-Doux, Kote-si-Kote-la.

Click here now for other Trini expressions and leave us a comment below of phrases you have heard.

Source: Dictionary of the English/Creole of Trinidad & Tobago by Lise Winer

Featured Image by  Felipe Portella on Unsplash

Word of the Week: Wild Meat

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The word of the week is a compilation of  Trinidadian sayings -phrases and words- used on the island.

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Spinning Top

Lime Lingo: Dance Top In Mud

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  • Dance top in mud (phr): Try something without chance of success; be frustrated by trying to do something in too difficult a situation. (From impossibility of making a top spin in mud) => spin top in mud.

Continue reading ➞ Lime Lingo: Dance Top In Mud