Etymology

Borneo

Bor·ne·o
B3O1R1N1E1O1

Today it means: A Pacific island shared by Brunei, Indonesia, and Malaysia; the world’s third largest island. Full definition →

Portuguese Borneo ← Sanskrit वरुणद्वीप
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The story

  1. Sanskrit · derived fromवरुणद्वीप“island of Varuna”
  2. Portuguese · borrowed fromBorneo
  3. English todayBorneo

From Portuguese Borneo, probably ultimately from Sanskrit वरुणद्वीप (varuṇa-dvīpa, “island of Varuna”), therefore a doublet of Brunei.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.