white ant - insult or harmless humour?

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

I've heard a Thai phrase a few times recently which translates literally as white ant. When said by Thais, it's accompanied by great fits of laughter. I'm wondering if its just a harmless joke or if there's a hidden insult in there . I'm thinking white ant maybe refers to a farang ?

 

In Thai I think it looks like อิปลวก ตัวแม่

 

Anyone heard of it ?

 

[seans]

google translate

อิปลวก ตัวแม่ is But termites mother.

[Jumpin Jack Flash]

I use www.thai2english.com/online/ and it says termite - white ant, of course a termite is a white ant, but I'm thinking the white is deliberate here and refers to farang, but maybe I'm just paranoid

[teigen]

And if the อิ (ii) was  a หี (hii), that dirtiest slang word for a pussy, cunt, vagina…

then หี ปลวก ตัวแม่ could be “a termite’s Queen mother cunt”.

And talking about a woman, not so nice indeed ... so I hope I'm wrong with this.

[slick67]

ปลวก bpluak - termite

อีปลวก ee bpluak - adding the อี makes it a curse word, using the name of a not very likeable animal. Just like ไอ้เหี้ย ai hia for instance.

 

 

I haven't heard of it before, but from what I understand Thais mostly use it among themselves, it's not specifically directed against farang.

If you have a big white bald head like a termite it might get some extra giggles though