Meaning of taoke | Babel Free

Definitions

1. boss; owner (of a business entity such as shop, etc.); shop owner; shopkeeper; business owner; employer (especially a Chinese Filipino boss)
   Philippines
2. term of address for a business owner boss (especially a Chinese Filipino boss)
   Philippines

Examples

“This mixing can be seen in the language of the text, which is replete that languages other than standard putonghua: there are Hokkien terms that will be unfamiliar to those who do not speak⟳ minnanhua, which is further characterized by the use⟳ of Philippine Chinese expressions (huanke for the huaqiao, tuadi for the residence certificate, tsut si a for mestizo, taoke for employer, sengdi for business, for instance); and there are Chinese-character phonetic transcriptions of Philippine languages (anim, pito, kamatis, kilo, boy, sarong), English (boxing; the words ultimatum, Asia, OK, and King Kong, and bye-bye appear⟳ in their original romanized form⟳ in the text), and Spanish (chiquito). Although Bai Ren is careful to provide⟳ parenthetical translations of these verbal transcriptions, there are some words that remain⟳ untranslated, as when Chen Shan at one point⟳ lets lose⟳ the invective putang-ina.”

CEFR level