As the sign says, "Strictly casual." Bahåke is the Chamorro term for the most casual clothing possible, usually reserved for in and around the house. Take for example these two lalåhe :
The guy on the left : casual. Good enough even for church (weekday Mass) or many types of employment.
The guy on the right : BAHÅKE!
Bahåke is the type of clothing that a young man runs and changes in the bedroom when he sees the girl he is flirting with approaching the house.
Bahåke is the old but comfy gown a woman would never be caught dead in outside the immediate family.
The word was adopted by the Chamorros from the Spaniards by way of the Filipinos. The original, Tagalog word is "bahag." It means "loincloth," as seen below. The bahag was worn by many Filipinos before the Spaniards came, but since then it is mainly the mountain tribesmen that wear it.
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| http://jerelona.tripod.com/Bahag.html |
A modern-dressed Filipino modeling the "bahag" loincloth
The Spaniards could not pronounce "bahag" and said "bahaque" instead. Exactly how the word was passed on to Chamorros is not known. Perhaps the Spaniards called the loincloths and other similar, minimal coverings used by the Chamorro men at the very beginning of westernization, bahaque. But, it entered our language and was eventually applied to the most casual, informal house dress.
What would a store called "Bahakihut" sell? Take a look :
This is my complain.
ReplyDeleteBahåke is the type of clothing that a young man runs and changes in the bedroom when he sees the girl he is flirting with approaching the house.
Hafa i gender/sexuality enao na "young man"? Boy? Girl? Gayman? Lesbian? pat bisexual? Meggai i klase i sexuality siha i palabra "young man"! Gof baba put i talangan-mami yan i inali'e'mami i palabra "young man" sa' in mandududa i sexuality-ña!
Because you use "guy" and "young man" only instead of "boy", I truly doubted the gender/sexuality of all English-speaking males.
ReplyDeleteI doubt the gender/sexuality of Chamoru males if you doesn't edit from "young man" into "boy" and most of all is if you doesn't edit the word "young man" into "boy", you can sure we truly doubt the sexuality of all males Worldwide who can able to speak English, including you as a blogger of this blog.
ReplyDelete