nyai

Indonesian

Etymology

From Javanese nyai (ꦚꦲꦶ).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): [ˈɲai̯]
Hyphenation: nyai

Noun

nyai (first-person possessive nyaiku, second-person possessive nyaimu, third-person possessive nyainya)

respected older woman.
(obsolete) mistress of a European or Chinese man.
Hypernym: gundik

Hyponyms

nyai ajeng
nyai tumenggung

Descendants

→ Min Nan: 雅 (ngá)[1]

References

Salmon Claudine. Malay (and Javanese) Loan-words in Chinese as a Mirror of Cultural Exchanges . In: Archipel, volume 78, 2009. pp. 181-208

Further reading

“nyai” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

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