Etymology

wumao

wu·mao
W4U1M3A1O1

Today it means: An Internet user who is paid by the authorities of the People's Republic of China to spread propaganda and disinformation on their behalf. Full definition →

Chinese 五毛
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The story

  1. Chinese · borrowed from五毛
  2. English todaywumao

From the Hanyu Pinyin romanization of the Mandarin pronunciation of Chinese 五毛 (wǔmáo), a clipping of 五毛黨 /五毛党 (wǔmáodǎng, literally “the 5 dime party”), in reference to allegations that the Chinese government employs online shills paid 1/2 yuan RMB per online post.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.