different between oppo vs hoppo

English

Etymology

Clipping of opposite number (for the first sense) and opponent/opposition (for the second).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /??.p??/
• (US) IPA^(key): /??.po?/

Noun

oppo (countable and uncountable, plural oppos or oppoes)

1. (countable, Britain, slang) A friend, associate or colleague. [from 20th c.]
   • 2016, Alan Moore, Jerusalem, Liveright 2016, p. 53:

     “It's all right, chaps, the decorator's come. This 'ere is me old ’oppo Ginger Vernall.”

   • 2012, Tony Orchard, Here's to our Far-Flung Empire

     'I suppose you're referring to Fluker,' I told him, and he looked at me in stunned amazement when I explained that he was one of my old oppoes.

2. (uncountable, US, politics, informal) Research into one's opponent's family, friends, and past, which aims to uncover activities or interests which embarrass or discredit them.

   Synonym: oppo research

Anagrams

• po-po, poop, popo

English

Noun

hoppo (plural hoppos or hoppoes) (now rare)

1. A Chinese board of customs or revenue.
   • 1808–10, William Hickey, Memoirs of a Georgian Rake, Folio Society 1995, p. 108:

     On the way two Chinese buildings were pointed out to us as hoppo, of custom-houses, at both which all boats […] are obliged to stop and undergo a strict search or examination by a petty mandarin.

2. A customs officer in China.

References

• 1873, John Camden Hotten, The Slang Dictionary