Category: Kabut-Kabut

What is “kabut-kabut”? The first time I heard this word was back in my college days when I lived with my Uncle and Aunt.

I walked into the living room. It was a weekend, and it is cleaning time. I heard my Uncle telling my Aunt, in Filipino,” Ang dami mo talagang kabut-kabut na naka-kalat” which roughly translates into “You really have a lot of junk scattered all over the place”. To my ears it sounded like he was complaining about all her trash, or more likely, her stuff, whatever stuff is. And so I always assumed the word “kabut-kabut” to be part of a southern Philippine dialect. And I wanted to find out.

So I fired up my computer, opened up Firefox and did a google, a bing, a yahoo search, and this is what I found.

“kabut” is an Indonesian and Malay word that means fog, mist or smoke.

Hmm, this does not sound like what my Uncle meant. My Uncle grew up in an area close to the Indonesia, so it is reasonable to assume that “Kabut-Kabut” derives from the Indonesian word. Or he invented a word that just so sounded Indonesian but is purely his own.

And this is how I define it.

kabut-kabut – Defined as junk or stuff that scattered in a haphazard mess across a room, table or space. In short, clutter.

Example of use:

(a) A mother says to her child, “Too much kabut-kabut in this room. Go pick these up.”

(b) “What are all these kabut-kabut? You really need to concentrate on fewer things.”

This category is a random collection of thoughts and ideas, “stuff” really.

WordPress would call this “Uncategorized”