# gunting or gununting



## arnisandyz (Feb 22, 2002)

I was working out with my wife (she moved here from the Philippines 3 years ago, and I am an "Americanized" Filipino as she likes say and my Tagalog is not all there).  I was teaching her concept of "guntings" and she stopped and corrected me.  She said that Gunting means scissors (noun).  The right word is "gununting"(verb) which means cutting with scissors or cutting in a scissor like motion.  I have no choice but agree and believe her as she will kick my butt, but has anyone else come across this tomato-tamato difference? 

What is even stranger is that there is a Filipino sword(noun) that is called a gununting (verb).

Whatever, as long as you can do it.


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## arnisador (Feb 22, 2002)

I guess the question is whether the technique is "the scissors" or "the scissoring motion"! I have always heard _gunting_ myself but it could well have been corrupted.


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## Cthulhu (Feb 22, 2002)

> _Originally posted by arnisandyz _
> *I was working out with my wife (she moved here from the Philippines 3 years ago, and I am an "Americanized" Filipino as she likes say and my Tagalog is not all there).  I was teaching her concept of "guntings" and she stopped and corrected me.  She said that Gunting means scissors (noun).  The right word is "gununting"(verb) which means cutting with scissors or cutting in a scissor like motion.  I have no choice but agree and believe her as she will kick my butt, but has anyone else come across this tomato-tamato difference?
> 
> What is even stranger is that there is a Filipino sword(noun) that is called a gununting (verb).
> ...



I was wondering why you said both terms during that short demo, especially since I haven't heard you make that distinction before.

Could it be that the term commonly used (gunting) is simply a corruption of the word _gununting_? The Filipino language seems to have a lot of repeated syllables (like pananananananananananananandata ), so some lazy Westerner could conceivably have shortened _gununting_ to _gunting_, since the latter is a little easier to say for lazy folk like myself.

That, or I'm talking out my butt again.

Cthulhu


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## disciple (Feb 23, 2002)

I don't know about tagalog, from what I know about Indonesian and Malaysian "gunting" can mean both the noun and verb

salute
:asian:


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## no fefe (Feb 23, 2002)

I always crossada was more like the scissoring action and gunting was sneaking in hits. like when an opponent throws a right you parry with a right and the left comes up and delivers a strike to the bicep.

Robert Koenig


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## Wingman (Apr 22, 2002)

Some nouns in Tagalog can become a verb by inserting "in". Thus gunting can become ginunting (g+"in"+unting).



> The Filipino language seems to have a lot of repeated syllables


Ginunting (to cut) can become ginugunting (cutting). This explains for the repeated syllables.

FYI.


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## bscastro (Apr 23, 2002)

I've seen this sword, which one of my instructors brought from the Phillipines. Basic it looks like one half of a pair of scissors. So if you can imagine the curved part of the sword is on the non-bladed edge, as opposed to a bolo. The tip is bladed on both sides, and it is good for stabbing.

This one was very sharp, and I did not enjoy doing sombrada with my instructor when he held it. We went very slow and I had a stick, and my footwork got really good really quickly!

Bryan


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