*SET-U

English word origin

Etymology of Malay

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.

1 source sectionExtended source reportWiktionary original ↗
In this entry · 1 source sections

The source etymologies

Wiktionary via Kaikki / Wiktextract

The source reports below are imported and unreviewed by *SET-U. Separate numbered origins and differing source variants are preserved; agreement within this extraction is not independent corroboration.

Unnumbered source etymology

Original entry ↗
noun

A person of Malay ancestry, referring to a diverse group of Austronesian peoples inhabiting the Malay archipelago and Malay peninsula in Southeast Asia. · Type of mild curry made with yoghurt and fruit, usually pineapple or lychee.

name

The Malay language, an Austronesian language spoken by most Malay people and by others where it is an official language, including under the name Indonesian. · The Malay language, an Austronesian language spoken by most Malay people and by others where it is an official language, excluding the national standard known as Indonesian. · A municipality of Aklan, Philippines.

adj

Of or relating to the Malays, a people living in Brunei and coastal regions of Borneo including Kalimantan in Indonesia, on the eastern coast of Sumatra, the islands of Bangka and Belitung, the Riau archipelago, in most of the Malay Peninsula including the southernmost provinces of Thailand, states of West Malaysia (where they are politically dominant in the federation), and in Singapore. · In, of or otherwise relating to the languages spoken by Malays.

Selected source glosses provide context, not a complete modern definition inventory

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.

Relationships mentioned by the source

These are extracted mentions, not a timeline or a verified sequence of immediate parents.

Inspect preserved source fields

Raw extraction fields are retained for auditing. Their order does not establish ancestry.

{
  "templates": [
    {
      "name": "etymon",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": ":der",
        "3": "ms:Melayu<id:ethnicity>",
        "id": "ethnicity",
        "tree": "1"
      },
      "expansion": "[Appendix:Glossary#derived_terms|Derived]] from\", \"terms\" : [ { \"id\" : \"ethnicity\", \"children\" : [ ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"Malay\", \"term\" : \"Melayu\", \"lang\" : \"ms\" } ], \"keyword\" : \"derived\" } ], \"status\" : \"ok\", \"lang_name\" : \"English\", \"term\" : \"Malay\", \"lang\" : \"en\" }\" data-id=\"ethnicity\" data-lang=\"en\" data-title=\"Malay\" id=\"English:_ethnicity\">"
    },
    {
      "name": "der",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": "ms",
        "3": "Melayu"
      },
      "expansion": "Malay Melayu"
    },
    {
      "name": "ncog",
      "args": {
        "1": "ml",
        "2": "മല",
        "3": "",
        "4": "mountain"
      },
      "expansion": "Malayalam മല (mala, “mountain”)"
    },
    {
      "name": "etymon",
      "args": {
        "1": "en",
        "2": ":der",
        "3": "ms:Melayu<id:ethnicity>",
        "id": "ethnicity",
        "tree": "1"
      },
      "expansion": ""
    }
  ],
  "links": [
    [
      "Melayu",
      "Melayu#Malay"
    ],
    [
      "Malayu",
      "Malayu#Malay"
    ],
    [
      "Yijing",
      "Yijing"
    ],
    [
      "末羅瑜國",
      "末羅瑜國#Middle_Chinese"
    ],
    [
      "Yuan",
      "Yuan"
    ],
    [
      "Ming",
      "Ming"
    ],
    [
      "木剌由",
      "木剌由#Middle_Chinese"
    ],
    [
      "麻里予兒",
      "麻里予兒#Middle_Chinese"
    ],
    [
      "巫來由",
      "巫來由#Middle_Chinese"
    ],
    [
      "無來由",
      "無來由#Middle_Chinese"
    ],
    [
      "മല",
      "മല#Malayalam"
    ]
  ],
  "references": [],
  "descendants": [],
  "lexical": [
    {
      "pos": "noun",
      "glosses": [
        "A person of Malay ancestry, referring to a diverse group of Austronesian peoples inhabiting the Malay archipelago and Malay peninsula in Southeast Asia.",
        "Type of mild curry made with yoghurt and fruit, usually pineapple or lychee."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "countable",
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      ],
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    },
    {
      "pos": "name",
      "glosses": [
        "The Malay language, an Austronesian language spoken by most Malay people and by others where it is an official language, including under the name Indonesian.",
        "The Malay language, an Austronesian language spoken by most Malay people and by others where it is an official language, excluding the national standard known as Indonesian.",
        "A municipality of Aklan, Philippines."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "broadly",
        "strict-sense"
      ],
      "recordId": "504cfeacd153173da8fddc8ffa4fd7c9ebdcb0e1057b5d85ba742b8b306d2346",
      "rawRecordSha256": "9abeedc08dff3f2efd6a903f462b4ea075a36d9deeff36e83a99a89253752383",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 175687
    },
    {
      "pos": "adj",
      "glosses": [
        "Of or relating to the Malays, a people living in Brunei and coastal regions of Borneo including Kalimantan in Indonesia, on the eastern coast of Sumatra, the islands of Bangka and Belitung, the Riau archipelago, in most of the Malay Peninsula including the southernmost provinces of Thailand, states of West Malaysia (where they are politically dominant in the federation), and in Singapore.",
        "In, of or otherwise relating to the languages spoken by Malays."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "not-comparable"
      ],
      "recordId": "89605b1a7177972289a8ab3fd939bc9bb9a2cc0b8298eab7758508cf20b36e73",
      "rawRecordSha256": "1483417cd6c93d6df671903dfc3ce70f2b723a911475425b0f46350c9b83f6eb",
      "sourceRecordOrdinal": 175685
    }
  ],
  "omittedAuxiliaryFields": {
    "templates": 0,
    "links": 0,
    "references": 0,
    "descendants": 0,
    "lexicalRecords": 0,
    "lexicalSenses": 0,
    "glosses": 0
  }
}

Where this record stops

This page does not supply an independently verified sound-change sequence, first-use manuscript or complete family tree unless a cited analysis explicitly establishes one. Missing detail here is a limit of this record—not a claim that humanity knows nothing more.

An older meaning does not determine what a word must mean today. Follow the sources, preserve disagreements, and keep ancestry separate from interpretation.

Contribute located evidence for Malay →

Source and snapshot

Imported from Wiktionary contributors; extracted by Tatu Ylonen / Wiktextract / Kaikki.org. Selected fields are reformatted and grouped; wording, source identity and etymology sections are retained. CC-BY-SA-4.0 applies to the imported source material.

Dump: 2026-10-01 · Extracted: 2026-10-30. These are snapshot dates, not the word’s first attestation or the page’s revision date.

Source entry and bibliography ↗Wiktionary revision history ↗Acquisition and rights ledger
Machine-source provenance
Source SHA-256
5ff2c072f8099f2d2ce484bd6957bf179f046d2ad37bc36555edf8bb84cb5291
Import run
73216b9a9b78ed3830994bf853103716f5a4dc57099e371e9f8fdc468facca26
Permanent entry ID
w-TWFsYXk