Kut

Kut, which means ‘bone,’ is added to words when describing someone’s innate character. Usually negative.  Examples include:

Pîn-toāⁿ-kut (lazybones)

Khit-chia̍h-kut (moocher; beggar)

Chha̍t-á-kut (thief)

Rip off; pass off inferior goods as something better

Koà iûⁿ-thâu, bē káu-bah

Literally: Hang a sheep’s head (but) sell dog meat.

Use others to do your own dirty work

Chioh to sat jîn

Literally: Borrow a knife kill a man

Also:

Iōng pa̍t-lâng ê kûn-thâu-bú cheng chio̍h sai

Literally: Use someone else’s fist to punch a stone lion

Turf; territory

Chit kak-sì sī i ê tē-thâu, mài khì jiá tio̍h i.

This corner is his turf, so don’t mess with him.

Inside jobs are hard to stop

(Like employee theft, etc.)

Ka-chha̍t lân hông

Literally: “House thieves are hard to prevent”

Trust no one

Soaⁿ tiong iú ti̍t chhiū, sè-siōng bô ti̍t jîn

Literally: “In the mountains there are straight trees, but on earth there are no upright men.”

Crime doesn’t pay

Thau ni, thau liàm, chi̍t-sì-lâng khoeh-khiàm

Literally: “If you steal things and nick things, you’ll be in want your whole life”

There’s a related proverb that means something similar, but is also a more general admonition to not be greedy:

Siūⁿ tham tì ke-lam

Literally: “If you want to be greedy, you’ll end up with a chicken cage on/over your head”

Anti-theft system

Hông-tō an-chôan hē-thóng

An inside job

Ke-sîn thong gōa-kúi

Literally: the house god going through (i.e. using) the outside ghosts.

連外交零用金也Ａ

This is the headline from an editorial in today’s China Times Mandarin edition. You’ll see the letter ‘A’ used like this from time to time in Taiwanese newspapers, almost always in articles about money. ‘A’, pronounced ē in Taiwanese, means to get something for free, either as a gift or givaway, or through corruption. The latter, in this case. It must be a relatively new word, because I can’t find it in any of my dictionaries.

The whole article is below, and the original editorial is here.

熱門話題－連外交零用金也Ａ

項城／北縣新莊(文字工作者)

　高檢署特偵組在偵辦陳前總統任內出訪十一次的外交零用金去向，竟出現阿扁每次都留下三萬美元款項，挪用為其子陳致中的留學費用支出，此筆公款私用計達三十三萬美元，約台幣一千萬左右，而且還把當時的外交部高官也捲入。

　一千多萬和海角數億比起來，當然是「小汙」見「大汙」，可是對民進黨和至今仍死忠挺扁的民眾而言，那可能是一記難堪的耳光。暫且不論扁搖身一變成美國人，要越洋告美國政府的國際笑話。就以任內一再自誇的烽火外交，和突破中共打壓，為台灣生存而努力自許，竟也成了個人拚經濟的貪腐行徑。

　還有更傷國人感情的就是拿人民血汗錢的外交零用金，匯去自家兒子身上成為求學所需，這對全國那些吃不起營養午餐，那些得靠助學貸款才能讀書上學的大專院校學生，真會有別人家的孩子死不完的被剝削痛苦感。這種嚴重傷了年輕一代情感與公平競爭行為，不就是民進黨不及早切割阿扁下的自食惡果嗎？

　阿扁在競選時以陳致中當兵服役，去修理國民黨高官，那些不用為國盡義務的子女耍特權。而今日卻用人民的錢替子女鋪上黃金地毯，此種招惹全民公憤之事若也能用建國基金去包裝，那民進黨還想重返執政之路可能永遠是場夢。