Interesting Hokkien Words

This post is aimed at speaker of languages in the Chinese language family. If you speak none of them, you may want to use AI to help you understand the content.

This post only discusses Hokkien Hokkien, not Taiwanese Hokkien with stronger Japanese influence.

More to come. Stay tuned!

高麗菜

Cabbage, not cauliflower (from which this word comes from) or iceberg lettuce (which looks like cabbage).

Origin: Dutch word kool (cabbage).

高麗菜由荷蘭人傳入荷屬台灣，台灣閩南語稱為「高麗菜」（閩南語：ko-lê-tshài），源自結球甘藍的荷蘭語「Kool」。[3]清乾隆《續修台灣府志》卷十七中稱為「番芥藍」[3]（hoan-kè-nâ）、「番牡丹」。高麗菜可以生吃、醃漬、清炒、煮湯，料理百變又百搭，是台灣家庭食用量最大的國民蔬菜，清脆口感深受許多人喜愛，尤其冬天吃火鍋、薑母鴨、麻油雞等，一定要加高麗菜。很多農民在二期稻作收成後，就會選擇種植短期產量高的高麗菜。但高麗菜種植往往超量，容易造成市場價格崩壞。

https://www.wikiwand.com/zh-tw/articles/%E6%8D%B2%E5%BF%83%E8%8F%9C

塗豆

Peanut, not potato, even though many would write it down as 土豆.

https://zh.wiktionary.org/wiki/%E5%A1%97%E8%B1%86

https://www.wikiwand.com/zh-tw/%E5%9C%9F%E8%B1%86 (涂豆 thôo-tāu, 但是塗的下面應該加一個土, see the Wiktionary link above)

Also used multiple times in the short anime video below (dubbed in Hokkien, with Mandarin subtitles):

茶

My family make and drink tea every day, it's definitely an important part of our culture.