Most frequently used hokkien word among young and old. Hold on a sec. What does it mean actually. Well, lets go on a quest to find the truth to the meaning of the word... "Nabeh".
To the Chinese, nabeh would simply mean, shit, fuck, damn, etc. used mainly to further express unhappyness, dissatisfaction, disappointment, anger, etc. Normal English phrase like"Excuse me can you give better aim when you pee next time?" would be translated to "Nabeh lah, you anyhow spray your urine, your equipment is a hose not a sprinkler leh." in Singlish which is widely known to be broken English with a mix of hokkien.
Nabeh to chinese may not be a good word, especially when you talk to girls but it ain't the same for other races. Look what i have found.
Nabeh (First Name Origin and Meaning)
Origin: Arabic
Meaning: Noble. Outstanding.
Gender: Male
Source
Comments: Wow.. i can make phrases like "kau ni memang nabeh"(you really are nabeh) to my malay pals and they'll feel proud about it or you can go places like Egypt or Lebanon and starts calling people nabeh, and they'll smile back at you and probably give you the thumbs up signal.
So its common to get nabeh restaurants, nabeh hotels and also ppl with the word nabeh in their names if you run a search through the web.
So there is no right or wrong in the use of the word. Just that you'll get different treatment when using it on different people of a different ethnic.
Please drop me a comment should you have other info about the meaning of the word.
