malayo-

IPA/məlˈeɪəʊ/
IPA/məlˈeɪoʊ/

malayo- — combining form

1. placed before the name of another people, language family, or region to show tha

1.combining formC2
Definition

placed before the name of another people, language family, or region to show that the thing being described connects the Malay world with that other group — used mainly in language study and history writing.

Example

Professor Kofi opened the lecture with a brief history of the Malayo-Polynesian language family.

Malayo-Polynesian — names a wide family of related languages

Tagalog, Maori, and Hawaiian all belong to the Malayo-Polynesian branch spoken across the Pacific.

Malayo- + Polynesian — links the Malay world to Pacific island peoples

Common collocations
  • Malayo-Polynesian
  • Malayo-Indonesian
  • Malayo-Javanese
  • Malayo-Chinese
Synonyms
  • Malay-

    informal short form occasionally seen in journalism (Malay-Chinese marriage); Malayo- is the standard form in academic and reference writing.

Grammar Patterns

Malayo- + capitalized name

Malayo-Polynesian

Malayo-Indonesian

Usage Note

Always written with a hyphen and joined directly to a capitalized word naming another people, language, or region. The combined form keeps its initial capital because it begins a proper-noun compound. Distinguish from the plain adjective Malay, which describes the Malay people on their own — Malayo- only appears in compounds.

Common Mistakes

The country is a Malayo nation.
The country is a Malay nation.
Malayo- cannot stand alone; without a second word it has no meaning.
malayo-polynesian languages
Malayo-Polynesian languages
the compound is a proper noun and must keep both capitals.

Word family

Etymology

MalayEnglish

From Malay, the name of the people of the Malay Peninsula and nearby islands, plus the linking vowel -o- used in many Greek- and Latin-style compounds. The pattern matches similar joiners like Sino- (Chinese-) and Anglo- (English-).