嘍囉

Unknown.

Attested since the early medieval period. It is likely that this was initially an ideophonic, reduplicative and onomatopoeic word, imitating the indistinct and incomprehensible speech of barbarians.

Many recent studies (Rao, 1993; Li, 1998; Xu, 2003; Xu, 2005) have favoured the view that the two syllables in this word represent phonetic approximations of the four syllabic liquid consonants in Sanskrit ऋ (ṛ), ॠ (ṝ), ऌ (ḷ) and ॡ (ḹ), which are sounds in Buddhist chants that are minimally distinctive to the Chinese ear.

The word has a wide range of meanings; Xu (2005) has proposed the following semantic development:

“Unintelligible and abstruse speech”
> both “noisy and tedious” and “bright and capable”
> “capable person; heroic man”
> “villains; outlaws; bandits”.

Throughout history, many theories have been put forth by imperial Chinese scholars to explain the origin of the term, but most of these are now considered folk etymologies.

嘍囉

1. (literary, obsolete, onomatopoeia, ideophonic, as of foreign peoples) speaking in an indistinct and unintelligible manner; gabbling; jabbering

   • 夫蹲夷之儀，婁羅之辯，各出彼俗，自相聆解。猶蟲嚾鳥聒，何足述效。 [Classical Chinese, trad.]
     夫蹲夷之仪，娄罗之辩，各出彼俗，自相聆解。犹虫嚾鸟聒，何足述效。 [Classical Chinese, simp.]

     From: 5^th century CE, Gu Huan (顧歡), Treatise on the Barbarians and the Chinese (夷夏論)

     Fú dūnyí zhī yí, lóuluó zhī biàn, gè chū bǐ sú, zì xiāng líng jiě. Yóu chónghuān niǎoguō, hézú shù xiào. [Pinyin]

     As for the posture of squatting on their heels [despised in Chinese culture] and talking gibberish, each of these comes out of their customs, which they understand among themselves. It’s like the chirping of insects and twittering of birds. Why would it be worth transmitting or imitating? (alluding to the “barbaric” ideology of Buddhism)

2. (literary, obsolete, ideophonic) noisy; clamorous; disturbing; winding; tedious
3. (literary, obsolete) clever and capable; bright and skilful; astute and experienced; shrewd

嘍囉

1. (literary, obsolete) capable person; true man
2. (literary, historical) rank and file of a band of outlaws
3. follower of villains; underling; subordinate