Etymology

carabao

C3A1R1A1B3A1O1

Today it means: Any member of the domesticated subspecies Bubalus bubalis carabanesis of water buffalo. Full definition →

Spanish carabao ← Waray-Waray karabaw ← Malay kerbau
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The story

  1. Proto-Mon-Khmer · derived from*krpiʔ ~ *krpiiw ~ *krpuʔ ~ *(kr)puh“buffalo”
  2. Proto-Malayic · derived from*kAr(ə)baw
  3. Malay · derived fromkerbau
  4. Waray-Waray · derived fromkarabaw
  5. Spanish · borrowed fromcarabao
  6. English todaycarabao

Borrowed from Spanish carabao, from Waray-Waray karabaw, from Malay kerbau, from Proto-Malayic *kAr(ə)baw, ultimately from Proto-Mon-Khmer *krpiʔ ~ *krpiiw ~ *krpuʔ ~ *(kr)puh (“buffalo”). Compare Khmer ក្របី (krɑɑbəy), Halang kơpùa, Indonesian kerbau, Javanese ꦏꦼꦧꦺꦴ (kebo), Thai กระบือ (grà-bʉʉ).

Words from the same roots

Malaykerbau all →

kerbau

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.