Editing Toa Payoh (section)

==Etymology==
'''Toa Payoh''', in [[Hokkien]], translates as "big swamp" (with ''toa'' meaning "big" and ''payoh'' meaning "swamp"). The [[Malay language|Malay]] word for swamp is ''paya''. It is the Chinese equivalent of [[Paya Lebar]], which translates to "big swamp land".

Toa Payoh's old Chinese name, was known as ''Ang Chiang San'' (alternatively ''An Xiang Shan'') or "burial hill". The area was called as such because of the presence of an old cemetery located in the area.

[[John Turnbull Thomson]], a government [[Surveying|surveyor]], refers to Toa Payoh in his 1849 agricultural report as ''Toah Pyoh Lye'' and ''Toah Pyoh''.

Unique to housing estates in Singapore, roads in Toa Payoh are given Malay-language [[street suffix|street prefix]]es, (e.g. ''"Jalan Toa Payoh", "Lorong Satu Toa Payoh"'') as when the town was conceived, [[Singapore in Malaysia|Singapore was a state of Malaysia]].<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2005/yax-491.htm |title=Yax-491 Road names as markers of history |website=www.yawningbread.org |access-date=17 January 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20051211071929/http://www.yawningbread.org/arch_2005/yax-491.htm |archive-date=11 December 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref>