The story
- Vietnamese · borrowed fromđi đi mau“go quickly!”
- English todaydi di mau
Borrowed from Vietnamese đi đi mau (“go quickly!”). Borrowed into English by American military personnel returning from the Vietnam War, as well as by Vietnamese immigrants; popularized by the movie The Deer Hunter. This is an uncommon way to say "Hurry up!" in Vietnamese. The verb đi (“to go”) can be expressed as a command: "Đi đi! One may even express a sense of urgency with the word mau (“fast”): "Đi mau đi! However, Vietnamese speakers tend to use the verbs mau lên, nhanh lên, and vội lên in exactly the way an English speaker would use hurry up.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.