And I don’t think it’s fair to say that Singaporeans are the only ones who mug in the world – especially since the creme de la creme of academia is still very much centered in the West. (Sorry had to make a lame pun). “Mug” in US and Canada just has a different connotation. It means to rob/to steal. “Studying my ass off” is the American way of saying “to mug”.

Nothing to be surprised about and nothing worth a debate,
really. Each country has its own slangs that are influenced by its history and culture. And Singapore has both a culture of “mugging” and a history of British colonialism – it would thus be expected for us to incorporate British slangs from the colonial era in our everyday speech. But of course, the British slangs from the 40s and 50s would be replaced already. Hence the misunderstanding across cultures and borders.

Same thing with American English. They all had roots in Britain at one point, and all spoke British English at one point. But after its independence, their English grew a life of its own and became American English – dropping “u” from colours, and flipping “centre” to “center”, and having a entirely new set of slangs. Likewise, Singaporean English has grew a life of its own after our independence from British colonialism – adding dialects, changing grammatical structures, etc.

It’s all very common and normal. Nothing that requires fascination or debate. Happens all the time.

I’m sure the other people who mug as well, the Japanese, the Koreans and the Chinese (from PRC I mean)… they have a nice short simple term in their language that means “mug” exactly as we still use it in Singapore. Absolute tongue-in-cheek, and no offence intended to anybody from UK (or anywhere else), but perhaps the reason why “mug” is still used in Singapore where it’s died elsewhere is because Singaporeans are the only English speakers who still mug?

I think my mum says ‘mug-up’ for the meaning you said. I’ve never heard anyone younger use it though.

Actually, “mug” isn’t Singlish. That was the assumption I made, then I checked the OED, and sure enough, it’s there; the 5th of 7 verb entries for “mug” (and 6 noun entries).

[taken from OED]

mug, v.

1. intr. To read or study in a concentrated manner. Now freq. with up (on a subject, book, etc.); also formerly with away at, on at.

1848 MAXWELL in L. Campbell Life (1882) 117 Please to write about your Prizes at College, and about coming here to mug.
1860 J. C. HOTTEN Dict. Slang (ed. 2), Mug-up… To ‘cram’ for an examination.{em}Army.
1878 About Some Fellows vii. 45 Stortford, ever since he had settled to work, had..been patiently mugging on at his verses, and had got twelve done.
1893 G. ALLEN Scallywag I. 241 That prize essay you were mugging away at.
1915 H. L. WILSON Ruggles of Red Gap ix. 161 Many an hour found him mugging away at the book, earnestly striving to memorize the part.
1960 W. H. AUDEN Homage to Clio 90 You need not mug up on dates.
1989 R. MACNEIL Wordstruck iv. 102 His marginal notes suggest that he mugged up on Milton..about five minutes before he confronted us.
1999 Alumnus (National Univ. Singapore) Apr. 55/2 You must have mugged all the way through school and are working so hard that you have no time to relax.

[/taken from OED]

But I also don’t know why only Singaporeans “mug”; even native English speakers from UK don’t use the word “mug” like that anymore.

Very nice blog design btw.

I can’t count how many times I’ve been asked if I wanted to go get a “Tim’s”. Or how many times someone’s said to me, “That guy’s pretty hot, eh?”

In my region in particular (Northern Ontario), the linguistic trend seems to be changing what the in-word is for “good/interesting” every year. One year it’s “cool”, then “hot”, then “mint”, then “rad”, etc.