taoke

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taoke

/ˈt̪ʰaʊ̯.kɛ/ Philippines
/ˈt̪aʊ̯.kɛ/ Philippines

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Hokkien 頭家 /头家 (thâu-ke, “boss”). Doublet of towkay. Compare Tagalog taoke, Tausug tawki, Malay tauke, Indonesian tauke, Burmese ထောင်ကဲ (htaungkai:), Puyuma tawki, Rukai tawki, Sakizaya tawki.

noun taokes · tao ke

Philippines boss; owner (of a business entity such as shop, etc.); shop owner; shopkeeper; business owner; employer (especially a Chinese Filipino boss)
Philippines term of address for a business owner boss (especially a Chinese Filipino boss) 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
Similar: towkay, boss, sir, ma'am

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Cite this

MLA

"taoke." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/taoke. Accessed 7 Nov. 2026.

APA

taoke. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 7, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/taoke

Chicago

"taoke." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 7, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/taoke.

BibTeX

@misc{taoke_2026,
  title = {taoke},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/taoke},
  urldate = {2026-11-07}
}