dalam (Indonesian)

Where does "dalam" come from?

The Indonesian word "dalam" traces its origins back to the Proto-Austronesian term *daləm, meaning "inside." Over millennia, it evolved through Proto-Malayo-Polynesian and Proto-Malayic stages into the Malay "dalam" before reaching modern Indonesian. Along the way, its usage expanded to encompass meanings like "deep" and the "paternal side," while also adopting semantic influences from the Chinese word for "inner" or "inside."

Full etymology tree

• dalam (Indonesian), 'deep'
  • inherited dalam (Malay), 'deep'
    • inherited *daləm (Proto-Malayic), 'inside'
      • inherited *daləm (Proto-Malayo-Polynesian), 'inside'
        • inherited *daləm (Proto-Austronesian), 'inside'
  • calque 內 (nèi) (Chinese), 'inside; interior; internal; inner'
    • compound 冂 (jiōng) (Chinese), 'city outskirts; suburbs'
    • compound 入 (rù) (Chinese), 'to enter; to go into'
      • inherited *njub (Old Chinese)

Ancestors

• dalam (Malay)
• *daləm (Proto-Malayic)
• *daləm (Proto-Malayo-Polynesian)
• *daləm (Proto-Austronesian)
• 內 (Chinese)

Cognates and doublets

• dalem (Indonesian)

Descendants and derived words

• berdalam-dalam (Indonesian)
• dalaman (Indonesian)
• dalam-dalam (Indonesian)
• dalam negeri (Indonesian)
• didalami (Indonesian)
• kedalaman (Indonesian)
• memperdalam (Indonesian)
• mendalam (Indonesian)
• mendalam (Indonesian)
• mendalami (Indonesian)
• mendalamkan (Indonesian)
• pedalaman (Indonesian)

Updated June 2026

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Etymology data from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · About Miraris