Borrowed cantonese word for “normal”

Question

I have been watching local Hong Kong food reviews and have been hearing the word “lo1mou2” being said again and again.

I have been wondering for a very long time what this word could have meant. A search in a cantonese dictionary points me to “naked”, which definitely does not make sense given the context.

Finally, in one of the videos are subtitles in standard written chinese and is written as “普通”, which made me realised the “lo1mou2” i have been hearing is a loan word for “normal”.

Please confirm this? What are the chinese characters for this?

I suspect this to be like “boss” (波士？), “store” (士多）, “support” (十卜) all loan words (and a very interesting culture)!

Answer 1

SUN奇古怪：SUN潮語：【籮毛】

香港及中國內地「潮語」構詞研究, p. 3:

Extracted text:

而在餘下 280 個香港「潮語」當中，有 41 個屬於不能分解的單純詞，有部 分屬於單音節詞，如「推」、「萌」；有擬聲詞如「啪啪啪」；亦有專有名詞如 「醫鬧」、「劉江華」、「皮爾修」、「私煙」（指香港一名名叫李偲嫣的女人） 等；亦有英文如「Gathering」、音譯詞如譯自英語的「揩爬」（Hyper）、「籮毛」 （Normal）、「十卜」（Support）、「叉撚住」（Challenge）等。

The word we're looking for:

「籮毛」（Normal）

Seems to be missing from most dictionaries and lexicons. Perhaps CC-Canto, Words.hk or Wiktionary would include it in their lists. I'm sure Robert Bauer would love to include it in ABC Canto.

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Further looking into this term it seems to have more history to it than it first appears. Starting with this image:

Accompanied by an explanation from SUN奇古怪：SUN潮語：【籮毛】:

潮語「籮毛」意思其實就是英語「normal」的廣東語音譯，即是「正常」。不過這個「正常」是泛指後佔領時期，香港人生活回到佔領前的「正常」狀態，而這種「籮毛」是否真的很正常？就由自己去界定。例如佔領結束之後，金鐘告士打道一帶回復「正常」塞車，空氣污染指數，比佔領前重新回升百分之八十，旺角大量個人遊重新「佔領」彌敦道及亞皆老街，港喱繼續被地產霸權壓榨，社會制度繼續被政府某部分野心家赤化。

佔領被清，雨傘花開，有些人包括泛民議員們做show式束手就擒，根本就是一場戲，清理有否武力根本不是重點，重要的是，示威者在完全沒有爭取過任何東西，在政府零回應下，將三個領區交出，沒有任何後續行動，沒有相應升級行動，雨傘運動就像沒有發生過一樣，香港一切回復「正常」。情形就像電影《滿城盡帶黃金甲》一樣，浴血轟烈之後，皇城迅速清理，繼續慶祝中秋。不同的是，香港清場之後，就是普天同慶的聖誕節，香港燈飾依舊燦爛。雖然，旺角偶有「鳩嗚」行動，亦有「文化監暴」的那群社運藝人以歌聲抗爭。但無可否認的是，大部分港人，無論參加過雨傘運動與否，生活都重歸「籮毛」。但這個社會，真的就此回到正常嗎？或者，有人可告訴我，甚麼是正常嗎？

「籮毛」這個潮語，出現在雨傘運動被清場之後，有人甚至將「籮毛」製成潮語卡，以一個蹲下的人，露出屁股做漫畫形象，然後在屁眼附近畫上幾條毛。當然「籮毛」並非指那生在屁眼上的毛，雖然那裏的毛經常被忽略，但那裏的毛的確是可有可無，並無任何談論價值。

有人說雨傘會遍地開花，但我真的不敢太樂觀，望向煙雨濛濛的天際，還是吃羊架，火雞最實際，同意嗎？善忘的香港人。

Answer 2

The reason you cannot find 「「籮毛」 in the dictionary. is 籮毛 (normal) is not a loan word but a sound-alike word. It is for convenience

Hong Kong people often mix English words in Cantonese

Example:

• 係咪來還 show 呀?

• 佢八十歲仲 keep 得好 fit

• 幫我 book 個 appointment

Some publications, just use Chinese sound-alike words instead of English to make it easier to typesetting

• 係咪來還騷呀?

• 佢八十歲仲喼得好弗

• 幫我卜個約

The benefit is more obvious in vertical layout

The rule of choosing a sound-alike word is very liberal, often different people would use different words for the same English word, unlike the official loan words like 士多 (store) and 多士(toast) that are listed in dictionaries. Notice loan words are mostly nouns