…all are words which have landed in English (sometimes admittedly via Portuguese or Dutch) from Malay.

Surprised? I was. Until I read that the ancient kingdom of Malacca (couple of hours drive from Kuala Lumpur, integral part of modern Malaysia) was for centuries a major trading hub, visited by traders from India, the Middle East and China, Portugal, Netherlands and Britain.

I guess it’s understandable that words describing nature, like ‘cockatoo’, bamboo’, ‘gecko’, ‘orang utan’ (literally: man of the forest), or words to do with textiles and clothing (‘sarong’, ‘batik’), or regional food (‘sago’, ‘sambal’, ‘satay’) turn up in English to describe things with their origins in the tropics.

I’d never have guessed though that everyday words like ‘gong’, ‘compound’ (from ‘kampung’, meaning ‘hamlet, enclosure’) and ‘gingham’ (first recorded as long ago as 1615, meaning ‘striped’) were Malay. Nor that a tea ‘caddy’ derives its name from ‘catty’, which was a unit of weight (1 1/3 lb or 0.61 kg, if you’re interested. Which is quite a lot of tea, I think). And who knew that ‘junk’ was originally Malay ‘jong’? I didn’t, I thought it was Chinese, like ‘mandarin’, which also has it’s origins here.

I really like the origin of our word ‘launch’ (Yup. Malay again). Came into English via Spanish or Portuguese, but originally from the local ‘lancharan’ boat. ‘Lancharan’ is a beautiful word, meaning (especially when speaking of boats and turtles, apparently), ‘the action of gliding smoothly, without effort’. I shall aspire to that next time I go swimming.

Oh, and sorry about the hot dog.

I couldn’t find a picture of ‘ketchup’, (first recorded 1690, describing a piquant sauce made of vinegar, tomatoes and pickled fish and used as a relish). So I resorted to a picture with ketchup in it. If (and this would not be surprising) you were wondering what on earth frankfurters, bread rolls and mustard could possibly have to do with birds and lizards and plants – you were right. It’s nothing.

It’s linguistic globalisation run amok… which by the way is also from Malay, meaning ‘out of control, especially when armed and dangerous’. I’m glad that chap in a homicidal frenzy who was described as ‘amok’ in 1665 isn’t around any more. Phew.