# Garapal



## rockjon

Hi, 

I would like to know what garapal means and what contexts I can use it in.  From looking it up, it seems to mean flagrant or gross. Though from looking up on google, it seems to also mean that you don't care what others think as in being too frank or straight forward. Thanks for the help in advance.


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## DotterKat

_*Garapal*_ pertains to a quality of being _*flagrantly *_or_* grossly greedy*_. Being frank and straightforward is just a component of it, but greed has to be there too. Let's say a public official takes some money under the table in order to cut bureaucratic red tape, but does so in a discreet manner --- that would be greedy (corrupt and criminal, besides) but not yet _garapal_. If the same person openly solicits money, quotes terms by which you would pay him, plus other demands in exchange for greasing the bureaucratic machinery (a car, house, etc.) then that would be _garapal_. The closest equivalent I could think of is being a *greedy pig*.

A final (and finer) note on this word. Though it is not  vulgar, it resonates as hateful and almost vitriolic when used, exactly like when someone uses the pejorative term _greedy pig_. As with other words of this nature, using it may not only reflect poorly on the person to whom it is directed but likewise on the person who chooses to use it.


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## rockjon

Thanks, Dotterkat. So, the meaning is more less like masakim but to the extent that it is done in the open or is very upfront. Can the term also be used to refer to "low ball" or very low offers from buyers to sellers in negotiations? I've seen terms that refer to a "garapal na tawad" or something referring to negotiations in the tumawad sense.


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## DotterKat

Yes, absolutely. Whenever there is a flagrant display of greediness, whether in business, at the dining table, in the playground, even in relationships, the word *garapal* can be used to characterize the crude nature of this behavior. You are likewise correct in that *masakim* also refers to being selfish or greedy but with a more clandestine quality. In your example, a buyer who low-balls your property by $200K would be garapal, but if he does so and at the day of closing insists that you replace the roof, the siding and re-seed the lawn, then he is being masakim. A person who is garapal is upfront with his greediness and thus easy to dismiss. A person who is masakim has a dark, covetous and greedy heart that may not become apparent until it is too late.


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