orangutan

Origin

Probably via Dutch orang-oetan, orang-oetang, apparently from Malay orang hutan, orang utan (literally “forest man”), from orang (“person, man”) + hutan (“forest”), although as a term for the animal it is attested only recently (earlier and preferred terms being mawas and mayas). As there is originally no evidence for its usage, except occasionally literally, it must be assumed to have been regional, or a descriptive collocation used to explain the animal to early travellers. Forms in -ng are alterations after the first element, orang. The name orangutan has been used in Old Javanese texts, notably in Rāmāyaṇa and Smaradahana, in the form of uraṅutan and wuraṅutan.