kiah su
n.— «My favorite of these is “kiah su” which is Hokkien for “afraid to lose (out)” (Mandarin pa shu). Someone who is kiah su will go to great lengths to, for example, buy something they don’t really want, because it’s a good buy and a prestigious find. We need a word for this in standard English, though I’ve just started using kiah su.» —“Singlish” by Xiaolongnu Languagehat Apr. 19, 2004. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
It was a dark and stormy night. So begins the long and increasingly convoluted prose of Edwards Bulwer-Lytton’s best-known novel. Today the annual Bulwer-Lytton Contest asks contestants for fanciful first sentences that are similarly...
A librarian opens a book and finds a mysterious invitation scribbled on the back of a business card. Another discovers a child’s letter to the Tooth Fairy, tucked into a book decades ago. What stories are left untold by these forgotten...