Bajau

See also: bajau

English

Alternative forms

• Badjao, Bajao (Philippines)

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Indonesian Bajau bajau.

Noun

Bajau (plural Bajaus or Bajau)

1. (geography) An island in Indonesia (part of the Riau Islands) with the coordinate location 3°7'31.84"N, 106°18'38.30"E.
2. (ethnology) The indigenous people native to Bajau island (part of modern-day Indonesia), these ethnic group nowadays predominantly inhabit the Bajau island and its adjacent regions in Indonesia and also expanded to the southern Philippines.
   • 1905, United States. Bureau of the Census, Census of the Philippine Islands‎^[1], volume 1, page 565:

     The Bajaus, or sea gypsies, live in boats, their occupation being fishing.

   • 1969, James W. Gould, The United States and Malaysia‎^[2], page 30:

     The largest tribe is the 60,000-member Bajau. The Bajaus were once sea nomads and pirates.

   • 2011, Daniel White, Ron Emmons, Jennifer Eveland, Jen Lin-Liu, Frommer's Southeast Asia, page 569:

     The Bajau are a group of seafarers who migrated from the Philippines only a couple hundred years ago. The Bajau on the eastern coast of Sabah carry on their traditional connection to the water, living as sea gypsies and coming to shore only for burials. On the west coast, however, many Bajau have settled on dry land as farmers and cattle raisers.

Synonyms

• (member of people in Indonesia and southern Philippines): sea gypsy

Proper noun

Bajau

1. (linguistic) The native language spoken by the Bajau people (the indigenous of Bajau island in Indonesia).
   • 1937, W. F. Schneeberger, A Short Vocabulary of the Banggai and Bajau Language‎^[3]:
   • 2007, Mark T. Miller, A Grammar of West Coast Bajau, PhD Thesis.

Further reading

(ISO 639-3 language codes)

• Ethnologue entry for Bajau, bdl ⁠
• Ethnologue entry for Bajau, bdr ⁠

Anagrams

• Abuja

Indonesian

Etymology

Borrowed from Indonesian Bajau bajau.

Noun

Bajau

1. (geography) An island part of the Riau Islands with the coordinate location 3°7'31.84"N, 106°18'38.30"E.
2. (ethnology) The indigenous people native to the Bajau island (part of the Riau Islands).
3. (linguistic) The native language of Bajau people predominantly spoken in Bajau island and its adjacent regions.
4. Alternative form of Bajo.

Further reading

(ISO 639-3 language code)

• Ethnologue entry for Bajau, bdl ⁠