hongon (Coastal Kadazan)

Where does "hongon" come from?

The Coastal Kadazan word 'hongon', meaning 'arm' or 'forearm', traces its roots back to the Proto-Malayo-Polynesian term *ləŋən. This ancestral word may have originated from a combination of the word for 'five' and a locative suffix, reflecting an ancient linguistic connection between counting and the anatomy of the hand or arm.

Full etymology tree

• hongon (Coastal Kadazan), 'arm; forearm'
  • inherited *ləŋən (Proto-Malayo-Polynesian), 'forearm; lower arm'
    • affix *lima (Proto-Austronesian), 'five'
    • affix *-an (Proto-Austronesian), 'Verbal suffix marking locative focus.'

Ancestors

• *ləŋən (Proto-Malayo-Polynesian)

Updated June 2026

More words starting with H

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