Dictionary

di di mau en · VERB

Etymology

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.

Meanings

1. (defective, slang) To leave quickly, hurry away.
   • “[…]Di di mau!” which means get moving, and is not very polite. I started to turn away, then I had a good idea that would make everyone happy. 2002, Nelson DeMille, Up country: a novel, →ISBN, page 138:
   • And if a Vietnamese, be it man, woman, or child, refused to di di mau or tried to get away, the authorization was to go ’head and shoot ’em. 1984, Wallace Terry, Bloods: An Oral History of the Vietnam War, Random House, →ISBN, page 171:
   • "What part of "Di di Mau" don't you understand, Skinner?" 2000, “Skinner’s Sense of Snow” (television episode), The Simpsons, December 17, 2000
   • Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk): Oh, and point me to your best copier. / Lance (Elisha Yaffe): Best copier? / Jimmy: Yeah, best copier. C'mon, di di mau. 2016, Thomas Schnauz, “Fifi” (38:10 from the start), in Better Call Saul, season 2, episode 8:
   • [Viet Cong guard, to prisoner forced to play Russian roulette:] MAU! MAU! DIDI MAU! 1978, The Deer Hunter (via IMDB)
   • “[…] No contact with any gooks. They just blew the bridges and di-di mau’d.” Since I knew that di-di means “go,” and that mau means “fast,” I knew that the VC had made themselves scarce. 1995, Nicholas Warr, Phase Line Green: The Battle for Hue, 1968, Naval Institute Press, →ISBN, page 18:

Forms

wikipedia: The Deer Hunter