datuk

Indonesian

Etymology

Inherited from Malay datuk, from Proto-Malayic *datuʔ (“head of a clean, elderly leader”), from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *datu, from Proto-Austronesian *datu. Doublet of ratu.

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /ˈdatuʔ/ [ˈda.t̪ʊʔ]
• Rhymes: -atuʔ
• Syllabification: da‧tuk

Noun

datuk (uncountable)

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

• atuk

Derived terms

• berdatuk

 

• datuk nenek
• datuk poyang

 

Further reading

• “datuk” 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.

Malay

Alternative forms

• datok (pre-1972 standard, phonetic spelling)
• atuk
• tuk

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /datuk/, [datoʔ]
• Rhymes: -tuk, -uk

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 harimau ― Mr tiger

Derived terms

Affixations

• datukkan
• didatukkan
• mendatukkan

 

Compounds

• datuk betina
• datuk kayu
• datuk nenek
• rumah datuk

 

Descendants

• Indonesian: datuk
• → Hokkien: 拿督

See also

• nenek (“grandmother”)
• Datuk (title)

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