Hutan
/ˈhuː.tən/noun
A forest or wooded area, especially in the Malay Archipelago.
Did you know?Hutan is an English loanword from Malay, but its deeper ancestry is generally connected to Sanskrit vana, meaning “forest” or “woodland.”
Etymological Timeline
Ancient Sanskrit
Sanskrit
vana
“Forest, woodland, or wilderness”
Early Indo-Aryan transmission
Prakrit
vana / vana-
“A forest or wooded place; the form associated with later Southeast Asian borrowing”
Old Javanese
Old Javanese
utan
“Forest or wilderness”
Medieval Malay
Malay
hutan
“Forest, jungle, or wooded land”
19th Century
English
hutan
“A forest, especially one in the Malay region”
Modern English
English
hutan
“A forest or wooded area, chiefly in geographical or literary usage”
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