Otah

[Laurence Horn]

At 1:39 PM -0500 11/11/04, Benjamin Zimmer wrote:
>On Thu, 11 Nov 2004 12:13:19 EST, Bapopik at AOL.COM wrote:
>
>>OTAH
>>
>>OTAH + SINGAPORE--1,090 Google hits, 44 Google Groups hits
>>
>>"Otah" is not in the revised OED. The editors must not get out much.
>>
>>(GOOGLE)
>>Otah
>>Singapore Recipes. Otah. Imagine fresh, de-boned mackerel marinated with
>>coconut milk, freshly ground chilli, onions, lemon grass, blue ginger and
>>turmeric...
>
>This is more commonly known in Malay/Indonesian as <otak-otak> (pronounced
>/ota? ota?/), a reduplicated form of <otak> 'brain'.  (The mushy quality
>of the fish paste resembles beef brain, I presume.)
>
...suggesting a revised version of those NYC bus ads:

Read books.  Get otak.

L