About what I expected.

[swestrup]

The question came up at supper yesterday of where the word "chopsticks" originated. It seems that the standard chinese 筷子 can be litterally interpreted as "bamboo things for eating quickly". Chop-chop is pidgen-English for 'quickly', and so they were called 'chop-chop sticks' and later just 'chopsticks'.

AFAIK, the 'chop-chop' term was considered somewhat derogatory (as it was usually used in giving commands to asian servants), but I'm not certain.

Comments

[xipetotec.livejournal.com]

Makes sense, a chinese co-worker I used to have used to purposefully propagate chinese stereotypes with an overly heavy accent asking for "fitty dallah, you pay now! Chop-chop!"

[sps.livejournal.com]

Online sources suggest that 'chop-chop' is a reduplication of 'chop' which in turn derives from the Cantonese version of that very 'quick sticks' construction.