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kapitan

Pronunciation: /kaˈpitan/

“kapitan” is a Malay word. Its 2 meanings in English:

noun

  1. A captain
  2. A high-ranking government position in the civil administration of colonial Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Borneo and the Philippines as community leaders of local foreign communities, such as Kapitan Cina.

Etymology

From Portuguese capitam (“captain”), from Old Galician-Portuguese capitan, capitam, from Genoese Ligurian capitan, from Late Latin capitānus, capitāneus, or Latin capitālis. Cognate with Japanese カピタン (kapitan). Doublet of kapten.

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Definitions are from Wiktionary, extracted by Kaikki.org, and are available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.