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I just realized that, in my nearly two-year stay in Cebu City, I've learned three striking new words that people here use on a regular basis, but words which I have never encountered before, yet I have really been having fun using these words in my own sentences. These words are:

1. Alimo-ot - I always thought the Visayan word for "hot" was "igang", so this was new to me--and it sounds like a fun word to say. Sometimes I find myself muttering the word over and over again as I walk the streets of Cebu on a hot, humid day.

2. Payter - Although not exactly a Cebuano word, I have never heard this word before I arrived in Cebu. It seems to be a corruption of the English word "fighter", but it here seems to mean something that is "awesome" or "magnificent" or "amazing", as in "Kakita ka sa Mercedez ni bosing? Payter kaayo!" I don't know if it's also related to the name of this locally brewed liquor called "Fighter Wine", but I do remember a radio ad back in Mindanao that pronounced Fighter like Payter.

3. Labang - Again, like "alimo-ot" I always thought that "to cross" in Visayan was "tabok". Again, a new word for me. I just find it funny that it's close to the Cebuano word for defecate, and it amuses me to think that I might put myself in an embarrassing moment if I mispronounce it while talking to someone

My GF, who's from Cebu, taught me two of these three words, but I'll let you figger out for yourself which of the three the two are.

-RODION