fatty bom bom

English

Alternative forms

• fatty fatty bom bom

Etymology

Derived from slang fatty (“a fat person”) + bom bom ("a sound imitative of the noise a fat person makes when walking").

Compare West Indian/Caribbean slang fatty bum-bum ‘a very fat person, esp. a woman with large buttocks’ (Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, 1996), and Australian slang fatty boom-bah or fatty-boom-bah-sticks ‘a taunting nickname for a fat person’ (The Essential Lingo Dictionary of Australian Words and Phrases, 2015).

Pronunciation

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): /ˈfɛti(˦) ˌbɔm(˨) ˌbɔm(˨˦)/

Noun

fatty bom bom (plural fatty bom boms)

1. (Singapore, colloquial, mildly derogatory) A fat or overweight person.
   • 1990 June 2, Chua Chong Jin, The Straits Times, page 28:

     He skips 500 times a day and runs three kilometers a day to chase away his fatty bom bom blues.

   • 2001 November 30, Jeanmarie Tan, The New Paper, page 42:

     “My family and friends were quite upset for me when they read it, but I don’t take it seriously,” said the 79kg heavyweight, who told us there were worse disparages like a “Go Home, Fatty Bom Bom” message posted on the Talentime forum.

   • 2006 January 10, Kathirasen, New Straits Times:

     I remember, too, a ditty: "Fatty, fatty bom bom, curi curi jagung; mata-mata tangkap, masuk dalam lokap" (the fat one steals the corn, gets arrested by police and is thrown into the lock-up.

   • 2007 November 7, Rosie Milne, “Trouble and strife: Singlish”, in The Telegraph‎^[1], retrieved 2016-03-28:

     I particularly liked: Fatty bom bom, meaning a fat bottomed person.

   • 2014 October 20, Jeremy Au Yong, “Who are you calling fat?”, in The Straits Times‎^[2]:

     Soon, there were all sorts of derivatives - fatty, fatso, fatty bom bom, Trim and Fit club (arguably not the children's fault) - so much so that by the time someone reaches adulthood, the term had become a source of deep emotional pain.

   • 2015 November 11, Gwee Li Sui, “SinGweesh on Wednesday: Kiam Chye Char Loti”, in The Middle Ground‎^[3], archived from the original on 9 August 2016:

     “Fatty bom bom” refers to an Ah Pui; “bom bom”, as the sound a heavy, wobbling body makes, dramatizes fatness.