Link Centre Dictionary

Malay

ma·lay

UK/məˈleɪ̯/ US/meɪ̯ˈleɪ̯/ uncommon
adjective (1) noun (2)

adjective

1.

of or relating to or characteristic of the people or language of Malaysia and the northern Malay Peninsula and parts of the western Malay Archipelago

  • “Malay peoples”
  • “Malayan syllable structure”
Synonyms

noun

1.

a member of a people inhabiting the northern Malay Peninsula and Malaysia and parts of the western Malay Archipelago

Synonyms
2.

a western subfamily of Western Malayo-Polynesian languages

Origin

From Malay Melayu, from Malayu, a kingdom on Sumatra's eastern coast (today's Jambi), mentioned by the Chinese Monk Yijing as 末羅瑜國 and during the Yuan (1271-1368) and Ming (1368-1644) dynasties as 木剌由, 麻里予兒, 巫來由 and 無來由. First attested in English as 1598. Exonymous derivation from Malayalam മല (mala, “mountain”) has not been demonstrated.

Phrases

  • Wiktionary’s coverage of Malay terms

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

Parts

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.