Nov 24, 2008

Discreetionary: hipon

hipon

hipon [HEE·pon] noun 1. a guy with a great body but with an average or unattractive face. example: “Those guys in suits are HOT and definitely not hipon!” —AJ on the KFC Shrimp Surfers TV commercial. etymology: from the Tagalog word for shrimp and from the observation that most people eat the body of the shrimp and not the head.

I can't remember the first time I encountered this term but I immediately understood what it meant. I'm just part of the majority who likes eating the body of shrimp and not the head (a la tempura), so I quickly got the idiom. Surprisingly, I still encounter a comment or two on blog posts that use this term asking what “hipon” means. Also, the term is often used in a derogatory manner.

I don't know of any good opposite term for a guy who has an attractive face with a not-so hot body. One term I've encountered is “lollipop,” but this refers to skinny or very lean cute guys (usually twinks). Do you know of any other such term?

Got any Discreetionary terms you'd like to share? Send them my way at discreetmanila at gmail.com.

4 comments:

. wrote on November 26, 2008 at 5:20 PM:

Never did I use the word hipon to describe a fellow PLU.

 
Vince (Discreet Manila) wrote on November 27, 2008 at 12:53 AM:

Mugen, sadly, I've used it occasionally when talking about guys with friends. But I don't think I'll use it publicly. It is quite derogatory.

 
Anonymous wrote on December 2, 2008 at 4:52 PM:

I'm not sure how accurate it is, but I asked a friend the same question and I was told the opposite of hipon is crab. Crabs seem to be all face, without body.

Has anyone actually used "crab" to mean this way? I agree, the terms are quite derogatory, but something we have fun using among friends.

 
Vince (Discreet Manila) wrote on December 8, 2008 at 12:10 AM:

Anon, I've never heard of crab before. I will try to ask my friends. :-)