Add oil

you have to put on a cantonese English accent though. Makes less sense if you elongate the vowel and pronounce the r

but yes quite fun

Also “poor guy”

>I'm not sure where the lollipop comes from.

Look at the throttle lever(s) on a ship or a plane.

And there's "Now you're cooking with gas" from Bob Hope and the American Gas Association connection.

Indonesians also use "gas" as a word of encouragement.

This is actually even closer than you realise, in that "add oil" can also mean hitting the accelerator in a car

Same in German with "gib Gas!", although we don't have the lollipop

Similar to "Giv'r!" along the lines of "Give 'er all you got!" in Canada.

Are there any other phrases that you know with a similar meaning? I moved to NL a bit over a year ago and joined the local tafeltennis club. Often the other members will yell “Sneller!” At me because I play like a disabled oma. In this case, I know they are telling me to go faster, but I wonder if there are other phrases that are being tossed around that I’m missing out on? “Gas erop” sounds familiar. For context, my Dutch is between an A2 and B1.

What's the first?

Probably because it's literally "Add oil", a weird Chinglish expression. If it were just 加油 it would be less notable.

> I know of several similar idioms in other languages. I don't understand why the article makes it our to be unique.

“Add oil” is such a common phrase for encouragement among Cantonese speakers that it featured prominently in the last two major Hong Kong protests in 2014 and 2019.

As mentioned in the Wikipedia article, the Lennon Wall (protest message board) was called “add oil machine” in 2014. And the “Hong Kong Add Oil” ambigram was extremely popular among protesters in 2019, and is now banned under the National Security Law [1].

I doubt “add oil” in other languages enjoys such a unique cultural status as in Cantonese.

[1] https://hongkongfp.com/2021/01/10/skin-in-the-game-hong-kong... :

> his first protest-related tattoo, which is an ambigram combining the Chinese characters for “Hong Kong” and “Add oil,” was intended as proof he was not an undercover police officer.

Or Nike's slogan.

For English, I think it's equal to a general "go/do it" cheer. E.g., "Let's go!" to cheer for a team, and "You can do it!" when talking to a single person or a few people. And just as shallow or sincere as one may make of it.

Completely agree on the Japanese equivalent, though I feel that indeed has a bit more of a "strive/do your best" sense!

Would native English speaker say that? Gas as throttle is common in Dutch, German, Czech and many other languages but I haven't seen it in English.

"Put the pedal to the metal" is afaik more idiomatic.