Po

An article in today's 聯合報 has this headline: "有夠扯！全美核設施誤PO上網". I didn't know what "po" means. At first I thought "po" stands for pissed off, but that didn't make much sense with regards to the rest of the headline. Then I thought maybe "po" stands for petty officer. Quickly, I figured "po" must be one of those new "Chinese" words that I haven't learned yet.

It turns out "po" is not an acronym but a shorthand version of the English word "post". This is a strange way of modifying the English word. Instead of writing or saying "post online", the general public in Taiwan is now accustomed to using "po上網". I can't understand why people don't just use "po" as an acronym for "post online" and simply eliminate the words "上網".

In my research for the meaning of "po" I came across an alternative explanation. The Chinese term for "post online" can be "鋪上網". The pronunciation for "鋪" In Taiwanese is "po", therefore, "鋪上網" has become "po上網". This version is probably not the generally accepted meaning of "po" but is more fun to me.