datuk

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Indonesian

Etymology

From Malay datuk, probably from Old Malay datūa (regent).

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): /ˈdatʊk̚/
  • Hyphenation: da‧tuk

Noun

datuk (first-person possessive datukku, second-person possessive datukmu, third-person possessive datuknya)

  1. grandfather
    Synonyms: aki, kakek
  2. elder
  3. title for elder
  4. (dialect, Minangkabau) traditional chief.
    Synonyms: kepala adat, penghulu adat
  5. (dialect, Minangkabau) genie, jinn
    Synonyms: jin, toapekong
  6. (dialect, obsolete) synonym of harimau (tiger)

Alternative forms

Derived terms

Further reading

Malay

Alternative forms

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *datu, from Proto-Austronesian *datu. Doublet of datu, datung, and ratu.

Pronunciation

Noun

datuk (Jawi spelling داتوق, plural datuk-datuk, informal 1st possessive datukku, 2nd possessive datukmu, 3rd possessive datuknya)

  1. A father of someone's parent; a grandfather.
  2. A form of address to one's grandfather or someone of a similar age.
  3. A form of address to someone who possesses the title of Datuk.
  4. (archaic) A form of address to a police officer or by a police officer to their superior.
  5. A type of ghost.
    Synonyms: puaka, penunggu
  6. (Chinese folk religion) An idol.
    Synonyms: berhala, topekong, dewa
  7. (informal) A form of address to tigers.
    Datuk harimauMr tiger

Derived terms

Affixations
Compounds

Descendants

  • Indonesian: datuk
  • Hokkien: 拿督

See also

Further reading

  • datuk” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.
  • Blust, Robert; Trussel, Stephen; et al. (2023) “*datu”, in the CLDF dataset from The Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (2010–), →DOI