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Friday, December 16, 2016

Wuh: The Origin

A long, long time ago, in an island far, far away, from where I'm writing currently, there was a boy.....

Oh boy...

Well, there was a time, when I was in standard 4 or 5, or 6, which I could not recall exactly, at Sekolah Kebangsaan Duyong, the only primary school, as a matter of fact the only school, in a small island called Pulau Duyong in Kuala Terengganu, situated at the estuary of the Terengganu River, when my fellow classmates and I had to attend our classes at a "balai raya" (community hall/building) outside the school for quite some time because part of our school, or just our classroom, was involved or affected by some kind of repair or renovation work.

One afternoon, while I was playing around with a few of my friends at a nearby "wakaf" (gazebo), there was also this white/Caucasian young adult male tourist, who I think was just getting some fresh air sitting on the "wakaf".  We were also having our conversation with that guy, in our broken English in the typical style of a "kampung" (village) boy in Terengganu during that particular time in the 1980s.  I remember telling him that at home amongst my closest family, I was affectionately called "Wuh" (pronounced as "wooh").  That white fellow immediately reacted by asking if "Wuh" pronunciation is similar to the barking sound of a dog:  Woof!  Woof!  He then had a good laugh together with my friends.  Damn it and poor me!

I recently asked my elder brothers and sisters on the origin of the "Wuh" name and they told me that it had been like that since I was little.  Typically, a name like mine, "Fairuz" (pronounced "fye-ruse"), would have been shortened to "Ruz" ("ruse") or "Rooh", or even shortened to "Yuz" ("use") or "Yuh" ("yooh").  In my case, I think that because of the atypical way of calling me "Wuh",  it has become a very unique name by itself.

Anyway, since you have come this far, you should have known by now that you won't get to know how I was called "Wuh" in the first place by my closest family because I also don't know the story behind it.