O-H-P

“Ohp, part!”

Have you ever heard someone say something like this? If you’re a guy – and from WV, and I mean a permanent (as of now) resident of the place – you definitely have. Guys say this as some sort of Ilonggo slang (or Filipino slang, I don’t exactly know which); one thing’s for sure, the expression’s oh-so-popular here in Iloilo (Glinda starts singing in the background).

Part has long been a conversational mainstay, from the Tagalog pare, but ohp… it’s a weird word. Really weird word. Guys say it all the time nowadays (fine, so I might have blurted it out a couple of times or so, but I’m not saying I’m 100% iconoclast).

The catch is: Do you/we actually know how this word came about? I’m referring to ohp here. Do you? Huh? Huh? Huh?

I guess not. I’m also guessing you didn’t have to guess to guess that you don’t. Well then, here’s my theory.

Sigarilyo (that damn burning stick) is yosi. That came from SI-garil-YO, which was made into SI-YO, which further became YOSI. From-the-province is promdi. That’s FROM-THE-province, which mutated into PROM-DI province, which ended up as PROMDI.

So, OHP came from PHO, which actually comes from PO. That’s right, the Tagalog word for respectation.

To make the long story short, Po was mutated by commie homo-lovin’ sons of guns (go Sean Penn!) into FO or PHO, which guys unknowingly changed to OHP.

My conclusion: OHP is actually gay lingo!!!!!

So guys, still saying OHP there? Well then…

“Hi fo, mga mare!”