The story
- Malay · derived fromcengal pasir
- Malay · derived fromcengal“Neobalanocarpus heimii, a kind of hardwood tree in the dipterocarp family”
- English todayChangi
Uncertain. Several origins have been suggested: * From Malay cengal (“Neobalanocarpus heimii, a kind of hardwood tree in the dipterocarp family”). * From Malay cengal pasir or cengal mata kucing (“Hopea sangal, a tree in the dipterocarp family”). * From the Malay name for a kind of spreading shrub found in the region (Thottea corymbosa). Richard James Wilkinson records chěngai (cengai in modern orthography) as an alternative name for the cengal trees in A Malay–English Dictionary, originally published in 1901. In Singapore, chengai refers to the Neobalanocarpus heimii.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.