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anyone else like thelost who can answer. What is the meaning of "sloy" in bek sloy. I know it's a dance style but I was wondering if it was related to what dancers and martial artists call " broken rhythm." I practiced boxing, Hawaiian Kempo and escrima for over 30 years. I had horrible footwork but it was my strongest advantage. The rhythm of a fighter is easy to get inside of when it is predictable. With broken rhythm not even the one who has it knows what he will do next. But enough extraneous biographical detail. What does"sloy" mean?

they call the dancing bek sloy, but bek sloy has its own meaning, its associated with being "Fucked in the head"... your head is broken and crazy...
they associate it with their dancing because theyre dancing is very crazy style

បែក ( adj ) [baek]
to be broken, cracked; to have a broken ... (e.g. limb);
ស្លុយ ( adj ) [sloy]
to be bold, courageous, willing to take risks, resolute; foolhardy; unperturbed

but yeah i agree with you, regards to an unorthodox fighter, they are the hardest people to fight, my most favourite unorthodox fighter is actually nicknamed "the drunken master"



but another great example being one of my all time favourites prince naseem hamed

Thanks for that Jamie and for the clips too. I've never heard sloy used before. Here the locals say
klahan(courageous). Live and learn.

I have never seen this phrase before and jamie has this down.

"baek" បែក​ to me, sounds like something has burst. pop/bang. like a car wheel has burst and now is broken. in regards to limbs that you see in the traffic accidents, it means that you could see the meat/organ stuff from the limbs, exposed, for example "baek kbal" បែកក្បាល , you can see the brain and stuff. it's different from "dach" which means the limb has been separated.

"sloy" ស្លុយ according to the dictionary i've read, feels like something that is brave and stupid at the same time. kind of like an idiot who did not think ahead, just rush into dangerous situation without considering anything beforehand i.e. running across the minefield to the other side or something.

put it together, i guess it's kind of like saying stupidity/crazy has exploded i.e. fucked in the head like jamie said.

i've heard of "glahaan" ក្លាហាន which is similar to "sloy" but i think the difference between them is that glahaan is used when a person is courageous in the face of danger, brave and not giving into fear, have to do something which is scary but it must be done.
"sloy" is probably used for someone who is just plain stupid without any regards for consequences doing foolhardy things.

i could be wrong. taabarang, maybe you could consult your wife to ascertain the difference between these two words?

Indeed, I never heard it referring to a dance myself. Only to say someone is crazy (usually used in a humorous way).