Go Stun! Go Stun!

Posted by Tan Wee Kiat under Reflections
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In the comments that followed Vickoo’s article on kite-making, there was a digression about how the word “Missy” became a synonym for Nurse.

Here is another local phrase (Go Stun! Go Stun!) whose origin may be of interest to readers of yesterday.sg.

Very often when a big vehicle (bus, lorry, tanker) is reversing into a parking place, an assistant will go to the rear of the vehicle to shout directions to the driver.

What you hear, as the vehicle reverses, will stun you as the phrase sounds like “Go Stun! Go Stun!”.

Besides “Go Stun, Go Stun” you can also hear “Go Head, Go Head”. In a tricky parking situation, such as a tight squeeze and the vehicle has to go backwards and forward several times, you can hear a torrent of commands to ‘Go Stun’, ‘Stop”and ‘Go Head’.

Of course, ‘Stop’ means to stop.

‘Go Head’ is clearly a short form of Go ahead, that is, Go forward.

But how did “Go Stun” become associated with reversing?

Apparently, “Go Stun” is a corruption of the phrase “Go a-stern”.

‘Stern’, of course, refers to the rear of a boat

So, Go Astern is to reverse the boat.

In time, Go Astern came ashore and was applied to vehicles.

With frequent use, Go Astern was shortened to Go Stern and then to ‘Go Stun’.

So, if the pace of life is a bit too fast you may need to ‘Go Stun’ a bit and take time out to fly kites.

Oh! Before I forget, the phrase “Go Stun” was also heard when kids indulged in spider-fighting. In a spider-fight, each boy would take out his ‘fighter’ (kept in a match box, or similar sized metal container, usually lined with a piece of pandan leaf) and coax the spider on to a neutral surface. The 2 spiders would then face each other, assume a fighting posture, and then move in to fight. After a few moments of grappling with each other, the loser would turn around and run away with the winner chasing after it.

Sometimes, however, you would have a spider that won’t get into a fight. It gets so intimidated by the martial stance of its opponent that it turns and runs. Such a spider was known as a “Go Stun Spider” and not worth keeping.

Talking about this reminds me of a Spider incident some years back. One evening when I came home from work (I am now retired) my wife told me that a young man had been loitering outside our house around 4 pm. My wife suspected that this young fellow was trying to attract the attention of our young maid.

My house is a corner house with a fence. Outside the fence there are some MacArthur palms and small bushes. When my wife asked why he was standing outside our house, the young man replied he was ‘looking for spiders’. My wife then told him that if he continued loitering outside our house, she would call the police.

To this the young man boldly replied,

“I am not afraid of you or the police. After all, there is no law against looking for spiders”.
My wife then went into the house and came out with a small auto-focus, point-and-shoot camera.
On seeing the camera, the young man quickly went away.

Me: Oh! That was clever of you. By the way, did you know there was no film in the camera?
Wife: Really, I didn’t know that. Luckily, neither did the young fellow.
Me: I think we should buy and use a digital camera from now on.

Wife: Don’t make an excuse for buying new stuff. Do you think the young man will come back again?
Me: Oh! I don’t think he is brave enough to come back to “catch spiders”.
Wife: Why do you think so?
Me: Because he is a Go Stun Spiderman, lah.

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