Moluccas

English

Etymology

From Maluku, thought to have been derived from the term used by Arab traders for the region, Arabic جَزِيرَات المَلِك‎ (jazīrāt al-malik, literally “king islands”), from the word مَلِك‎ (malik). However, since the name itself has been mentioned in a 14th-century Majapahit eulogy, Nagarakretagama, that predates the arrival of Islam in Maluku at the late fifteenth century, other sources claim that the name comes from a local language with the meaning "the head of a bull" or "the head of something large".[1]

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /məˈlʌkəz/

Proper noun

Moluccas

  1. An archipelago in Indonesia.

Synonyms

Translations

References
  1. The World of Maluku: Eastern Indonesia in the Early Modern Period, Honolulu: Univ. of Hawaii Press, 1993, →ISBN
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