Malay, noun and & adjective

Origin:
English, Dutch, MalayShow more English, translation of Dutch Maleier from Malay Melayu person of Malayan origin, speaker of the Malayan language. See quotation 1979.
A. noun
1. Cape Malay noun phrase. 2. rare. Cape Coloured noun phrase.
1765 Mrs Kindersley Letters (1777) 65Some of them are called Malays or Malaynese, brought from the country of Malacca, and the islands to the eastward of India, subject to the Dutch company.
1786 G. Forster tr. of A. Sparrman’s Voy. to Cape of G.H. I. 12To the south..are seen the burial grounds of the Chinese and free Malays that live at the Cape.
1804 R. Percival Acct of Cape of G.H. 86The Hottentots..are both more ordinary in their faces, and not so well made in their persons as the Malays.
1822 W.J. Burchell Trav. I. 73The Malays have..a house dedicated to the Mahometan form of worship, with a regular priest established and supported by themselves.
a1823 J. Ewart Jrnl (1970) 27The Malays form no inconsiderable part of the population of Cape Town. These have been brought at different periods from the Dutch settlements in Java and neighbouring islands. They are a very ingenious people and are the only artificers in the place.
1827 A.J. Jardine Fragment of Church Hist. 34The Malays in Cape Town are said to amount to 3000, and converts are almost daily added.
1835 G. Champion Jrnl (1968) 2Have commenced studying the Dutch. Its harsh guttural sounds are constantly annoying us as the numerous tribes of servants, Hottentots, Malays,..children &c are passing & repassing our narrow streets.
1835 G. Champion Jrnl (1968) 28The Malays or Mahometans are a large & distinct body, consider themselves a grade above the others, & in some respects are accessible by the Christian Teacher.
1861 Lady Duff-Gordon Lett. from Cape (1925) 33Malay here seems equivalent to Mohammedan. They were originally Malays, but now they include every shade, from the blackest negro to the most blooming English woman...Emigrant girls have been known to turn ‘Malays’ and get thereby husbands who know not billiards and brandy — the two diseases of Cape Town.
1877 R.M. Ballantyne Settler & Savage 35He stormed in Dutch at three of his unfortunate people, or rather slaves. One was a sturdy Hottentot, named Ruyter, one a Malay named Abdul Jemalee.
1904 H.A. Bryden Hist. of S. Afr. 11As small traders, shopkeepers, artisans, horsekeepers, and fishermen, the careful Malays have thriven..; during a period of more than two centuries they have preserved their own customs and the Mohammedan religion.
1936 Cambridge Hist. of Brit. Empire VIII. 263Malays..were found in useful employment as skilled tailors, carpenters and cobblers.
1949 E. Hellmann Handbk on Race Rel. 588It (sc. Islam) welded its adherents into a compact group and if to this group the term ‘Malay’ has come to be applied, it denotes a religious and not a racial group.
1951 L.G. Green Grow Lovely 187About 150 Malay words..remained in the Afrikaans spoken by the Malays, and some are more widely used — such words as atjar, blatjang and katel.
1953 Drum May 44There are about 30,000 Malays and one million Coloureds.
1973 Cape Times 7 Feb. 10In Cape Town the terms ‘Malay’ and ‘Mohammedan’ are often used as synonyms. Strictly speaking, however, ‘Malay’ refers to that section of the Coloured community in which the descendants of the Eastern Malays are to be found.
1979 ‘J.C.’ in Natal Witness 2 Feb. 11The number of slaves’ names examined was 4890, only 0,31 percent of which (16 persons) came from Malaysia. Yet the majority of the slaves were described as Malays. In his summing up Dr Bradlow suggests that they were called Malays for linguistic reasons, the Malay language being the trading medium (like Swahili in East Africa) for a vast geographical area stretching from Madagascar to China.
1981 Sunday Times 12 July (Mag. Sect.) 1‘We speak the most beautiful Afrikaans in the country,’ said Mr Ebrahim Schroeder, a prominent Malay. ‘We use words drawn from Malay, Arabic and English.’
3. combinations
Malay cart, a small, two-wheeled cart formerly much used in the Cape Malay community;
Malay magic, occult arts, especially involving poltergeists and psychokinesis, supposedly practised by Cape Malays; cf. goëlery; see also slamaaier sense 2;
Malay Quarter, a residential area of Cape Town, situated below Signal Hill, in which Cape Malays have traditionally lived, see quotation 1989;
Malay-tricked participial adjective, affected by Malay magic;
Malay trickery, Malay tricks, see Malay magic.
1861 Lady Duff-Gordon Lett. from Cape (1925) 49A light Malay cart (a capital vehicle with two wheels) and four horses.
[1861 Lady Duff-Gordon Lett. from Cape (1925) 50The cart is small, with a permanent tilt at top, and moveable curtains of water-proof all round; harness of raw leather, very prettily put together by Malay workmen.]
1900 W.W. Skeat (title)Malay Magic.
1934 Cape Argus 27 Jan. (Swart)Malay ‘magic’ assumes a hundred different forms.
1966 I.D. Du Plessis Poltergeists 53Malay magic goes further than the use of charms and love potions.
1966 I.D. Du Plessis Poltergeists 83Whether we believe in these supernormal phenomena or not,..what is locally known as ‘Malay Magic’ or ‘Malay Tricks’ is to be found not only in Cape Town or in South Africa but all over the world.
1971 L.G. Green Taste of S.-Easter 146The kris (or creese), a dagger either straight or curved and elaborately decorated, plays a large part in Malay magic.
1920 R. Juta Tavern 29Above the square, almost honeycombed into the hill behind, the tiny mosques and white and pink and yellow houses of the Malay Quarter showed.
1989 T. Botha in Style Dec. 158The real Malay Quarter isn’t really a quarter. It’s not even an eighth. Of the Bo-Kaap, that is. Lots of people, even residents, talk about it generally as the neighbourhood on the Signal Hill side of the city. But..it’s located between Chiappini and Buitengracht to the top and bottom. Between Strand and Wale to the side. Next door are the lesser known, but bigger quarters: Stadzicht, Schoon Kloof and Schotse Kloof. Together they’re the Bo-Kaap, home to some 6000 Cape Muslims.
1990 Weekend Argus 10 Feb. (Weekender) 4The girl’s face had been changed into that of a jackal. My mother said it was a lot of nonsense, but Mattie insisted that the girl and been Malay-tricked...Anyway, said Mattie, she couldn’t stay there because she too would be Malay-tricked.
1944 I.D. Du Plessis Cape Malays 69Poltergeist phenomena (‘Malay tricks’).
1966 [see quot. at Malay magic above].
B. adjective Cape Malay adjectival phrase.
1815 Afr. Court Calendar & Dir.Abdol Garis, Malay priest, 23 Langa Street, Abdol Malik van Batavia, Malay Doctor, 22 Dorp Str.
1823 W.W. Bird State of Cape of G.H. 73Slaves at the Cape may be divided into three classes: the Negro, the Malay and the Africander...The Malay slaves are coachmen, tailors, painters, shoemakers, carpenters, and fishermen.
1832 Graham’s Town Jrnl 13 July 112A Malay Priest waltzed with a tight little Quaker, and the Imaum of Muscat flung the handkerchief alternatively to little loves from Alp and Appenine.
1847 J. Barrow Autobiog. Memoir 155He stuck to his waggon nearly the whole journey, but spurred on his Malay cook in the preparation of our evening’s repast.
1875 ‘M.E.’ Life on Diamond Fields 6A number of gaily-dressed Malay girls got out here..most of them sporting the Prophet’s colour — bright green.
1892 J.E. Ritchie Brighter S. Afr. 7As fast as the coloured people become Mohammedans..they call themselves Malays, and adopt Malay ideas and habits.
1919 M.M. Steyn Diary 7The Malay boy..was our constant companion and taught us how to make kites in the Malay fashion.
1952 G.M. Mills First Ladies of Cape 75The pattern of the furniture made and carved at the Cape by the Malay craftsmen.
1960 J.P. van S. Bruwer in H. Spottiswoode S. Afr.: Rd Ahead 53Of the two groups the Brown people are numerically the stronger, numbering over one million — and for practical argument also including the Malay people.
1971 Daily News 24 Apr. 9His remaining sisters were classified ‘Malay’ as was his mother.
1985 J. Cloete in S.-Easter Aug.–Sept. 21Malay music, as we know it in the Cape, is fundamentally a sung music,..a simple expression of a love of life.
1987 Star 30 Oct. 18Its decor, in the finest tradition of the Old Cape is equalled by the excellence of its menu — a splendid combination of authentic Cape Dutch and Malay.
1990 R. Gool Cape Town Coolie 97‘Why aren’t you working?’ he asked, in the racy, sing-song Afrikaans peculiar to Malay fishermen.
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