- Dr Ho Pak-leung of the University of Hong Kong says trend in daily caseloads has been on the rise, but public need not to be too worried
- Rise expected after easing of social-distancing measures; hospital admissions and number of patients with serious symptoms have not increased
Where does the word ‘chop’ come from?
Familiar to both Hongkongers and Singaporeans, ‘chop’ can be traced back to the 17th century colonial Indian English
This summer , many of us will be travelling and collecting another chop in our passport. That’s the Singaporean in me talking, but it is intelligible to Hongkongers, too: by “chop” I mean “passport stamp”.
The word is wonderfully evocative of the passage and contact of peoples and cultures in earlier times. From the Hindi chaap, meaning stamp, imprint, seal or brand, or instrument for stamping (used already in 17th-century colonial Indian English), the word entered English in the early 19th-century as chop, referring to a trademark – a consequence of trade of the linguistic kind during the British empire’s expansion into the Indian subcontinent. Merchants and civil servants travelling from British India to other outposts of the empire spread the word.