To the Editor of the "Nonru-Ciwa Dany News"
Sim-Giles' Glossary of Reference states "Maskee" is a pidgin term for "never mind," "no matter," ote, and onibiy' from the Portuguese" dle junctive mas, "This and the several theories advanced by your correspondents all seek an origin from the Fortuguese or Spanish.
My own theory is that "maskee" is the English pidgin (os opposed to pidgin English) word coined by a Yocal contraction of the Cantoné phrase "mo see. gat is nothing," "It doesn't matter. phrase isin very common: use, and probably some bright foreigner. in the old Factory days in Canton, hear-{ing the term so frequently employed, anglicized it to "Maskee," so that he could have a ready report when unnecessarily bothered about something no consequence. He may even have thought he was speaking good Cantonese!
Say "mo see gare" quickly, and you have "maskee"t
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.