The Oxford English Dictionary has included the expression "add oil" as an official term.
Pronounced in Cantonese as "ga yau" or "jia you" in Mandarin, the expression joins a list of 'Hong-Kong English' words added by the dictionary.
The dictionary entry included four usage citations, with the earliest reference dating back to it being used to urge competitors to accelerate or move forward at the Macau Grand Prix during the 1960s.
University of Melbourne linguistic expert Professor John Hajek said words of Asian origin were commonly translated into English.
"You have things associated with food, you have some words that are Malay, and some concepts that have been translated from Chinese in English," he told SBS Cantonese.
"It’s a term of encouragement given to people, like ‘go on you can do it,’ and apparently it’s been brought back by expats in Hong Kong, it’s caught on and used in places like Singapore where you find lots of Chinese speakers."
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Prof Hajek said another example of 'Hong-Kong English' was the expression "wet market" - a term used to describe traditional places where fish and poultry are sold out in the open.
Professor Hugo Tseng, from the Department of English Language and Literature at Taiwan's Soochow University, said the Oxford addition was an example of the language changing with the times.
“The language is changing. Be open-minded, keep up your pace with the times, and do not stick to the rules,” he said.
Other 'Hong-Kong English' items in the Oxford dictionary were 'yum cha' and 'milk tea'
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