Malaysia
/məˈleɪ̯ʒə/ proper noun
- proper noun A country in Southeast Asia. Capital: Kuala Lumpur.
- proper noun (obsolete) The Malay Archipelago.
Synonyms
Etymology
Affixation of Malay + -sia (alternative form of -ia), coined by British geographers in the 19th century as one of several terms used to refer to the Malay Archipelago, can be translated as "land of the Malays".
A popular folk etymology holds that the country name was formed by adding ⟨-si-⟩ to Malaya, short for the former Federation of Malaya, to honour the inclusion of Singapore, Sarawak and North Borneo (Sabah) when the country was formed.
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 — from the Wiktionary entry “Malaysia”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details