“Cooties” is Malay in Origin
It surprised the heck out of me. The word “cooties” came from the Malay word “kutu” (lice). This is just one of the few English words of Malay origin that I stumbled upon while researching for my last post.
Well, I can’t really vouch for the etymologies because I got them from Wiktionary, but another article by Michael Quinion who works with the Oxford Dictionary should lend a much-needed credibility.
Some of the words are quite obvious, since they refer to regional nouns, such as “mangosteen” (manggis), “durian” and “orangutan”.
Some are deeply ingrained as being Malay, like “amok”, “kris” and “sarong”.
I have always suspected that “ketchup” came from kicap (and it does), but I’ve always thought that these came from English, and instead it was vice versa:
- “Agar”, from agar-agar
- “Paddy”, from padi
- “Junk”, from jong
- “Tea”, from teh (yep, they used the Malay variant rather than the Chinese!)
And my favourite: “compound” from kampung. Who would’ve thought of that?
From what I have heard, Malay language is just a compilation of over 60 languages throughout the world. It was developed by the traiders who came to Malacca to trade during its glory years. The pronunciation is easy, the grammar rules are simple and other friendly features which enabled everyone using this universal language during that period.
Nice and quite a logic theory. however i’m not sure how true the theory is..
huhuhu..
I think it’s a mish-mash of Sanskrit used by the royalties from Java and Sumatera mixed with Arabic brought in by the traders.
so then malay itself is rojak no?