Papua
/ˈpaːpwə/ proper noun, noun
Forms Papuas
- proper noun The southern part of what is now called Papua New Guinea, formerly administered as a separate territory to New Guinea.
- proper noun The western part of New Guinea, currently part of Indonesia.
- proper noun A province of Indonesia.
- noun (dated) A person indigenous to Papua.
Etymology
* From Malay pepuah (“curly (of hair)”) for the natives of the island of New Guinea.
* From Ternate/Tidore papo ua (“not united; not coalesced”), referring to the territory that geographically was far away from the Sultanate of Tidore (and thus not united). The territory was called papo ua gam sio (“nine village/region that is not united”).
* From Biak sup i babwa (“the land below [the sunset]”), referring to the islands (Raja Ampat) west of the Bird's Head, as far as Halmahera.
Sources: Wiktionary — from the Wiktionary entry “Papua”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details