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Cover page of a cookbook published in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia:

The big Chinese characters on the front cover say:

chī dòufu

吃豆腐

"eat tofu / bean curd"

On the surface, that's what the expression normally means.  However, one should be careful how and when one uses it, since it often is a slang expression signifying:

to come on to someone; to make advance[s] to a woman; to flirt

This idiom usually only refers to a man taking advantage of a woman in a sexual situation.

(source)

For instance, if you say "Wǒ xǐhuān chī dòufu 我喜歡吃豆腐" ("I like to eat bean curd") when it's not entirely explicit that you are talking the food, you are more than likely to elicit polite sniggers or profound guffaws.

The definition given above is not exactly always the one that I have heard from women who have been subjected to such abuse.  An example of the type of disrespectful harassment women experience is for a man running by or riding a bicycle past a woman or in close, crowded quarters on a bus, subway, or elevator, and touching her in a soft spot that is off limits, hence the comparison to tofu (at least that's my etymology [as of today, December 2, 2021, missing from Wiktionary]).

As for "hanky-panky" (n.), also "hanky panky', it is an expression that has always intrigued me, although the etymology is uncertain.   According to Online Etymology Dictionary, it is British slang, dates to 1841, and signifies "trickery". Other dictionaries tell us that is possibly a variant of hoky-poky / hokey-pokey ("deception, fraud; illicit sexual activity / relations", perhaps altered from hocus-pocus.

I didn't know about the Wiktionary entry before today, but it makes a lot of sense:

Etymology

Possibly a corruption of the Romani expression hakk'ni panki ("great trick", "big con" and hence "shady dealings").

Noun

hanky-panky (uncountable)

1. 1. Mischievous behaviour, dishonest or shady activity.
   2. Amorous behaviour, smooching, making out, necking, sexual intercourse or other sexual activity, especially if illicit.
   3. A debaucherous act; a sexual act that is considered inappropriate.

Thus we see that "eat beancurd" and "hanky panky", while both potentially involved with sexual deviance or dalliance, are rather different in effect.  "Eat beancurd", both in English and in Chinese, is a verb-object phrase describing an action, whereas "hanky panky" is a resultant action.  Act vs. action.

Selected readings

• "Bean crud" (1/9/14)
• "Vanity plates, writing systems, and the sexualization of tofu" (9/23/11)

[Thanks to Derek Lin]

December 7, 2021 @ 1:21 am · Filed by Victor Mair under Language and food, Puns

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