wantchee
Chinese Pidgin English
Alternative forms
- 灣治 (Chinese characters)
Etymology
From English want.
Verb
wantchee
- want
- need
- 1860, The Englishman in China, London: Saunders, Otley, and Co., page 100:
- belong olo custom pidgin, any man must wantchee go chin-chin Joss new year tim.[sic]
- (please add an English translation of this quote)
- 1862, T‘ong Ting-Kü, Ying Ü Tsap T’sün, or The Chinese and English Instructor, volume 4, Canton:
- 㕭灣治𪢍治温卑士羅也
- Jaau1 waan1 zi6 git3 zi6 wan1 bei1 si6 lo4 jaa5.
- You will have to engage a lawyer.
- (literally, “You wantchee catchee one-piecee lawyer.”)
References
- Gow, W. S. P. (1924) Gow’s Guide to Shanghai, 1924: A Complete, Concise and Accurate Handbook of the City and District, Especially Compiled for the Use of Tourists and Commercial Visitors to the Far East, Shanghai, page 109: “Wantchee: to want; to require.”