orangutan

Where it comes from

Probably via Dutch orang-oetan, orang-oetang, apparently from Malay orang hutan, orang utan (literally “forest person”), 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. Its usage to refer to the apes in these texts (from as early as the 9th century CE) has been seen as a refutation of claims that the name orangutan originates from a European source.