Talk:buwaya

Etymology for senses of "greedy person", "greedy", etc.

@Mar vin kaiser, Mlgc1998 Not sure of this, but the senses in question of "greedy" appears to date to Marcos era. One common theory is the terms is an allusion to the Philippine Constabulary (PC) uniforms. Any ideas or sources?-TagaSanPedroAko (talk) 23:14, 14 January 2022 (UTC)

@TagaSanPedroAko hmmm interesting, I guess u could do an advanced search through Google Books or Google (or whichever search engine) using a custom time range and check how people been using the word in sentences that way and it can be dated or explain where that sort of sense popped up. If it's somewhere around Marcos era, I guess "attested around the late 20th century"? or some decade like 1960s? 70s? 80s? haven't heard specifically about uniforms but maybe the above idea can shed light what was going through people's minds or what context was going on that led to it. or maybe some old forum discussion or blog talked about it. Mlgc1998 (talk) 08:42, 15 January 2022 (UTC)

@Mlgc1998:, @Mar vin kaiser Well, we already have attestations for the word used in sense "greedy", and most of them come from 70s and 80s. What's intriguing is the etymology. An allusion to the PC uniform, which is brown like with the color of crocodile skin, is possible (considering their unpopularity), but there could be more theories to this. TagaSanPedroAko (talk) 12:11, 15 January 2022 (UTC)

@Mar vin kaiser: Can you look into this? TagaSanPedroAko (talk) 02:41, 18 January 2022 (UTC)

@Mar vin kaiser Three days past, but can you look into this again? TagaSanPedroAko (talk) 11:37, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

@TagaSanPedroAko: I honestly have no idea how to verify this. All I can tell you is that in the Tagalog Slang Dictionary, one of the listed definitions of the word "buwaya" is "the police; policemen who make false arrests or accept bribes". The other definition is "greedy or graft-ridden person". --Mar vin kaiser (talk) 13:00, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

@Mar vin kaiser: Thanks for the reply. From that, I can say it's most likely have originated as a reference to the PC uniform, especially by activists during Marcos era, when it was first used to refer to PC constables who either accept bribes or make false arrests, then it got extended to greedy or corrupt people, especially politicians. TagaSanPedroAko (talk) 20:26, 19 January 2022 (UTC)

@TagaSanPedroAko yeah, just thought of adding. It seems there's also the Children's Rhyme like: "Gaya gaya, puto maya, siyang/paglaki buwaya!". I wonder as well when that started popping up. Besides that, I just know as well what other people from here in ph say in like comments of videos and social media where they try to make you imagine a politician eating you alive like a crocodile if you mess with them. Mlgc1998 (talk) 00:30, 26 January 2022 (UTC)