Pokai

There was a scene in Pirates of the Caribbean - At World's End where the Pirate Lords congregated and when they need to elect a Brethern King, each Pirate Lord nominated themselves. When one of the pirates nominated the French Pirate Lord who has gone broke, the Bahasa subtitles came out something like this :

"...saya melantik lanun Perancis yang pokai..."

Pokai?

I thought 'pokai' was a cantonese word used locally to mean someone is broke or bankrupt. How could the person put the word 'pokai' as a subtitle?

My parents thinks it might be a Hokkien word, as it is commonly used in Penang.

I looked up the Kamun Dewan Bahasa to find if there's such Bahasa word exist in the dictionery. And there it was.

pokai
bp tiada berbaki lagi, habis : engkau hendak pinjam drpd aku, macam mana aku hendak beri sebab aku pun dah pokai.


So the word 'pokai' actually exists in our Bahasa vocabulary. That's something enlightening. Wished I had the chance to use that word while sitting for my SPM essay writing examinations.

"Ada kemungkinan kerajaan tidak ada kemampuan untuk membaiki jambatan itu kerana mereka sudah pokai"

(translation : Perhaps the government is not able to repair the bridge because they are broke.)

Hah! They can't penalise me for that because "pokai" is a valid word to be used after all.

I still wonder how that word came about......