Malay Peninsula
1
4.6
- proper noun
:
Península Malaya
- The speakers of these languages and the cultures moved into Cambodia, Thailand, the Malay Peninsula, and Indonesia throughout the first millennium A.D.
Examples
-
Thailand had been infiltrated and the government suborned in advance; it issued an order to its troops to cease firing about three hours after the attack began on 8 December, destroy the United States Pacific Fleet, and deliver air strikes to the Malay Peninsula and Luzon.
Academic text (1991) -
Eastern Sundaland includes the portion of the spur that contains the island of Borneo and the eastern Malay Peninsula.
Academic text (1996) -
Perhaps eventual or accidental hostilities, perhaps hostilities following a Japanese conflict with Britain through a move against the Malay Peninsula, at whose tip lay Singapore.
Academic text (1991) -
Similarly, Singapore has just 43 fig species, whereas one would expect to find 60 to 70 species coexisting in forests on the Malay Peninsula (Turner et al. 1990).
Academic text (2005) -
From the U.S. West Coast, ships must transit the congested Strait of Malacca between the Malay Peninsula and Indonesia, followed by passage across the western Indian Ocean and through the Strait of Hormuz.
Academic text (2005) -
Singapore is an island city-state located at the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula.
-
Tin is the staple product of Sungei Ujong, and the Malay Peninsula is known for being one of the richest tin-producing areas in the world.
-
The Malays proper inhabit the Malay Peninsula, along with the coastal regions of Borneo and Sumatra.
Synonyms
132
2.7
A piece of land almost surrounded by water but joined to the mainland
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is directly derivable from 'Malay' (relating to the Malay region/people) + 'peninsula' (a landmass bordered by water); a B1 learner who knows both words can infer this refers to a peninsula in the Malay area (Southeast Asia). Although it is a proper name, the modifier+noun composition is straightforward and cross-linguistically transparent.
Etymology
Malay Peninsula comes from the Malay people who lived there and the word peninsula, which means 'a piece of land almost surrounded by water'. So the name gives the image of a long strip of land where Malay people lived between two seas, and that is why it refers to that region today.