sangley

S1A1N1G2L1E1Y4

noun

A person of pure ethnic Chinese ancestry (especially during the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines)

Scrabble 11

Meanings

sangley1

nounsangley (plural sangleys or sangleyes)

plural sangleys · plural sangleyes

  1. alternativeAlternative form of Sangley.

    Moreover, the sangleys are setting up a small parian in this area. This is bound to grow in time as more and more sangleys will go there to sow the fields and plant sugarcane.

    2001, José Eugenio Borao Mateo, Spaniards in Taiwan: 1582-1641, page 185
    2 more examples

    The steersmen were killed on two of the bancas; the bancas, turning broadside to the current, were soon capsized, and the river became a mass of frenzied sangleys fighting for their lives in the treacherous waters.

    1935, Percy A. Hill, Walter Johnson Robb, Romance and Adventure in Old Manila, page 49

    As discussed in the Introduction, the sangley was intimately associated with the economic activity of trade: even though there were sangleyes who worked as artisans (and in some cases farmers and fishermen), sangley involvement in the China-Manila-Mexico galleon trade was a key element of the early Spanish colonial economy. The sangley was also characterized by his high level of mobility, that is, his "frequent coming" from somewhere not here but near.

    2014, Caroline S. Hau, The Chinese Question: Ethnicity, Nation, and Region in and Beyond the Philippines, →ISBN

Sangley2

nounSangley (plural Sangleys or Sangleyes)

plural Sangleys · plural Sangleyes · alternative sangley · alternative Sanglay · alternative sanglay

  1. PhilippineshistoricalA person of pure ethnic Chinese ancestry (especially during the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines)

    There were also in this city certain Sangleyes who had settled down there to sell their merchandise, so that they remained there from one year to another.

    1905, United States Bureau of the Census, Census of the Philippine Islands, 1903, page 483
    2 more examples

    They retired to the river of Tan-Chuy, with a prize which they made there, a small champan from China, which came from that kingdom to Hermosa Island to carry supplies and merchandise; in it was traveling a religious of St. Dominic, in the garb of a Sangley.

    1907, Emma Helen Blair, The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, →ISBN, page 136

    What arouses my wonder most is, that when I arrived no Sangley knew how to paint anything; but now they have so perfected themselves in this art that they have produced marvelous works with both the brush and the chisel....

    1947, Edwin Wolf, Doctrina Christiana: the First Book Printed in the Philippines, Manila, 1593, →ISBN

Origin

  1. Philippine SpanishSangley
  2. EnglishSangley

From Philippine Spanish Sangley, ultimately from Hokkien.

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

sangley. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sangley

MLA

“sangley.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sangley. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “sangley,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/sangley.

Source: sangley on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.