Malay & Tagalog Words

Asian loan words in English

by Ann-Marie Imbornoni

Malay (Malaysia and Indonesia)

• amuck (or amok)
• batik
• cockatoo, from Malay kakatua, via Dutch.
• gingham, borrowed from Malay into Dutch (ginggang), and from Dutch into English.
• gong
• ketchup, from kicap, meaning "fish sauce."
• launch, a type of boat.
• orangutan, from orang, meaning "man" and hutan, "wilderness, jungle."
• paddy, from padi, meaning "rice, rice field."
• rattan
• sarong

Tagalog (northern Philippines)

• boondocks, from bundok, meaning "mountain." During the U.S. occupation of the Philippines, the word was adopted by American soldiers, who used it to refer to any far-off or wild place. Later it passed into the general vocabulary.