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INDONESIAN · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

gawai.

device, gadget (electronics product)

5 characters2 syllables approx.Bahasa Indonesia language

Meaning & usage

noun/ˈɡawai̯/Standard-Indonesian[ˈɡa.wai̯]Standard-Indonesian

  1. device, gadget (electronics product)

  2. work, job

    archaic · dialectal

  3. tool, equipment

    obsolete

  4. celebration, particularly of the Gawai Dayak

Where this word comes from

Inherited from Malay gawai, from Proto-Malayic *gawa(y) (cf. Iban gawa), from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *gaway (“religious feast; festivity”). Cognate with Javanese gawé (“work, use, purpose”), Iban gawa,Tagalog gaway (“witchcraft”) and gawa (“work”). * The sense “work” is a semantic loan from Javanese gawé * The sense “purpose, use, tool” is a semantic loan from Old Javanese gaway (“work, task, occupation; work, product; feast, celebration; use, purpose”). * The sense “gadget” is a semantic loan from English gadget. Coined by Indonesian translator Erich Ekoputra. * The sense “celebration” is a semantic loan from Iban and Kendayan gawai.

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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.