Dictionary

Octopus card en · NOUN

Etymology

Coined in a naming competition. Like its Chinese counterpart 八達通 /八达通 (baat³ daat⁶ tung¹), it references the number eight, as an octopus has eight tentacles.

Meanings

1. A contactless smart card, introduced in 1997, used as a form of payment in Hong Kong, originally for the mass transit system, but now widely used for public transport and other retail transactions.
   • Normally speaking, on a Monday my Octopus card will have HK$500–600 ($64–77 USD) stored inside, by Friday there will be very little left. 2022, Tom McDonald, Holy Hoi Ki Shum, Kwok Cheung Wong, quoting Man Yee, “Mediated Money and Social Relationships Among Hong Kong Cross-Boundary Students”, in Elisabetta Costa, Patricia G. Lange, Nell Haynes, Jolynna Sinanan, editors, The Routledge Companion to Media Anthropology, Abingdon: Routledge, →DOI, →ISBN, page 310:
   • But when I pressed my Octopus card to the fare machine, it answered with an angry buzz, like I'd answered wrong in a quiz show. 2013, Fred Hiatt, Nine Days, New York: Delacorte Press, →ISBN, page 201:
   • Bus routes cover every part of the territory. […] Octopus cards or exact change must be paid on entry. 2010, Andrew Dembina, Hong Kong Select, Singapore: GeoCenter, →ISBN, page 186:

Forms

Translations (2)

yue 八達通 /八达通 (contactless smart card used in Hong Kong) · cmn 八達通 /八达通 (contactless smart card used in Hong Kong)