chop-chop adv.

also chop-stick, "small stick of wood or ivory used in pairs in eating in China, Korea, Japan," 1690s, sailors' partial translation of a Cantonese pronunciation of Chinese k'wai tse, variously given as "fast ones" or "nimble boys." The first element is from pidgin English chop, from Cantonese kap "urgent" (compare chop-chop); second element from Chinese tsze, an individualizing formative particle. Chopsticks, the two-fingered piano exercise, is first attested 1893, probably from the resemblance of the fingers to chopsticks.