Indonesiannoun & adjective

1850	0.046
1860	0.035
1870	0.0062
1880	0.039
1890	0.079
1900	0.15
1910	0.2
1920	0.27
1930	1.2
1940	3.1
1950	5.3
1960	6.5
1970	6.4
1980	6.1
1990	6.2
2000	6.4
2010	6.6

Meaning & use

Quotations

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Earlier version

Indonesian, a. and n. in OED Second Edition (1989)

noun
1. 1850–
  
  (a) An inhabitant of the East Indian islands; spec. a member of this branch of the Malay race. (b) A native or inhabitant of Indonesia.
  The national language of Indonesia is now called Bahasa Indonesia.
  1850
  I prefer the purely geographical term Indonesia..for the Indian Islands or the Indian Archipelago. We thus get Indonesian for Indian Archipelagian or Archipelagic, and Indonesians for Indian Archipelagians or Indian Islanders.
  J. R. Logan in Journal of Indian Archipelago & Eastern Asia vol. 4 254
  1851
  In W. Indonesian the final vowels and consonants are in general in about equal proportions.
  J. R. Logan in Journal of Indian Archipelago & Eastern Asia vol. 5 214
  1881
  That fair element in Malaysia which Dr. Hamy proposes to group as Indonesians.
  A. H. Keane in Nature 13 January 249/2
  1895
  The Malagasy are Indonesians.
  Edinburgh Review October 516
  1932
  In Indonesian the infix -um- gives the radical a verbal active meaning.
  W. L. Graff, Language & Languages iii. 151
  1958
  The Indonesians..write their common language, Bahasa Malay, in Roman letters.
  Listener 4 December 914/1
  1973
  He had worked furiously..learning Indonesian.
  D. May, Laughter in Djakarta i. 13
  the world people ethnicity, race, or heritage peoples of Malaysia or Indonesia [nouns] person
  Malay1598–
  
  A member of a people chiefly inhabiting Malaysia, Brunei, and parts of Indonesia, and characteristically speaking the Malay language.
  Malayan1598–
  
  (a) = Malay, n. A.1a. (b) During the existence of the Federation of Malaya (from 1948 until 1963): an inhabitant of Malaya (regardless of ethnic…
  Bajau1769–
  
  A member of a nomadic maritime people distributed throughout the islands and coastal areas from the Malay peninsula and Indonesia to the southern…
  Rejang1783–
  
  A member of an Indonesian people of south-western Sumatra.
  Buginese1800–
  
  A member of a people living in South Sulawesi, a province of the Indonesian island of Sulawesi; = Bugis, n. A.1a.
  sea-gipsy1817–
  
  One of a roving tribe of fishermen of Malayan type living all their life on the sea, in the Malay Archipelago.
  Makasarese1820–
  
  A native or inhabitant of Makasar (see Macassar, adj. & n.).
  Samsam1836–
  
  A person of mixed Malayo-Thai origin from the west coast of the Malay peninsula (see quot. 1961).
  Jakun1839–
  
  An Indigenous people of the southern part of the Malay peninsula; a member of this people; also, their language. Also attributive or as adj.
  Sakai1839–
  
  An Indigenous people of the Malay peninsula (loosely used of Malayan Indigenous people collectively); a member of this people. Also attributive or as…
  Sundanese1849–
  
  A member of a mainly Muslim people of western Java (in Indonesia).
  Indonesian1850–
  
  (a) An inhabitant of the East Indian islands; spec. a member of this branch of the Malay race. (b) A native or inhabitant of Indonesia.
  Sasak1869–
  
  One of the Malay inhabitants of the island of Lombok. Also, the language of the Sasaks.
  Timorese1869–
  
  (A member of) the Indigenous people of Timor, of Indonesian-Malay stock.
  Temiar1933–
  
  An Indigenous people of the Malay Peninsula, also called Sakai; a member of this people.
  Orang Asli1961–
  
  A member of any of the Indigenous peoples of Malaysia.
  pribumi1974–
  
  In Indonesia and Malaysia: a member of the Indigenous population; a person of Indigenous descent. In extended use in Sabah, a state in East…
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  the world people nations native or inhabitant of Asia native or inhabitant of Indonesia [nouns]
  Indonesian1958–
  
  (a) An inhabitant of the East Indian islands; spec. a member of this branch of the Malay race. (b) A native or inhabitant of Indonesia.
  totok1972–
  
  A totok inhabitant of Indonesia.
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adjective
1. 1850–
  
  (a) Of or belonging to the East Indian islands; spec. pertaining to those Malay inhabitants of these islands who approximate to an Indian type. (b) (Also as n.) (Of, relating to, or designating) the western branch of the Malayo-Polynesian family of languages; (c) Of or pertaining to the federal republic of Indonesia.
  1850
  The partially negro character which the Polynesian or Indonesian community has acquired.
  J. R. Logan in Journal of Indian Archipelago & Eastern Asia vol. 4 441
  1850
  In the Indonesian languages everything beyond the mere surface resolved itself into their phonology.
  J. R. Logan in Journal of Indian Archipelago & Eastern Asia vol. 4 446
  1891
  Interesting aspects or phenomena in Indonesian ethnology and folk-lore.
  Athenæum 10 October 485/1
  1895
  The dark Indonesian race.
  Edinburgh Review October 516
  1933
  The Malayan (or Indonesian) branch includes Malay... Further, it embraces the languages of the great islands of the East, such as Formosan, Javanese, [etc.].
  L. Bloomfield, Language iv. 71
  1948
  The Netherlands Government..could not but feel that they had been interrupted in the very act of bringing to birth the Indonesian Commonwealth.
  D. Wehl, Birth of Indonesia xii. 177
  1948
  Two years of conflict between the Netherlands and the Indonesian Republic had ended.
  D. Wehl, Birth of Indonesia xii. 177
  1950
  Sovereignty was transferred to the Indonesian government on 27 December 1949.
  W. Theimer & P. Campbell, Encyclopaedia of World Politics 228/1
  1968
  The decision to promote a national language—Bahasa Indonesia—was taken at an All-Indonesia Youth Congress in 1928, and thereafter enthusiastically forwarded by Indonesian intellectuals and leaders.
  M. Caldwell, Indonesia i. 23
  1973
  He found himself dancing with the little wife of an Indonesian diplomat... [He] stayed with his Indonesian until ten.
  ‘I. Drummond’, Jaws of Watchdog iii. 35
  the world people ethnicity, race, or heritage peoples of Malaysia or Indonesia [adjectives]
  Macassar1665–1886
  
  = Makasarese, adj. Obsolete.
  Minangkabau1783–
  
  Of or relating to a people inhabiting the highlands of Sumatra in Indonesia.
  Rejang1783–
  
  Of, designating, or relating to the Rejang.
  Buginese?1811–
  
  Of or relating to the Buginese or their language; = Bugis, adj.
  Makasarese1841–
  
  Of or relating to the Makasars or their language.
  Indonesian1850–
  
  (a) Of or belonging to the East Indian islands; spec. pertaining to those Malay inhabitants of these islands who approximate to an Indian type…
  Sundanese1856–
  
  Of, belonging to, or characteristic of the Sundanese (see sense A.1) or their language.
  Sasak1869–
  
  Of or pertaining to the Sasaks.
  Bajau1887–
  
  Of, relating to, or designating the Bajaus or their language.
  Senoi1891–
  
  Of or pertaining to this people. Cf. Sakai, n. (and adj.).
  Bugis1898–
  
  Of or relating to the Bugis or their language.
  proto-Malay1898–
  
  Temiar1933–
  
  Of or pertaining to this people or their language.
  mamak1982–
  
  Malaysian English and Singapore English. Of, relating to, or associated with Tamil Muslims in Malaysia and Singapore, esp. with reference to their…
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  the world the earth named regions of earth Malaysia and Indonesia [adjectives] Indonesia
  Indonesian1850–
  
  (a) Of or belonging to the East Indian islands; spec. pertaining to those Malay inhabitants of these islands who approximate to an Indian type…
  View in Historical Thesaurus
  the mind language languages of the world Austric [adjectives] Austronesian of Austronesian languages
  Formosan1650–
  
  Of or pertaining to the island of Formosa, its inhabitants, or their language.
  Moluccan1700–
  
  Of or relating to the Molucca Islands, their inhabitants, or their languages.
  Bugis1808–
  
  Of or relating to the Bugis or their language.
  Tagalog1808–
  
  Of or pertaining to this people or their language.
  Murut1836–
  
  A member of a Dayak people of Borneo, originally inhabiting hill country in the interior of Sabah (North Borneo) and Sarawak, although now more…
  Indonesian1850–
  
  (a) Of or belonging to the East Indian islands; spec. pertaining to those Malay inhabitants of these islands who approximate to an Indian type…
  Lifu1852–
  
  (Designating, of, or pertaining to) a Melanesian language spoken on Lifu Island.
  Motuan1885–
  
  = Motu, adj.
  Buginese1897–
  
  Of or relating to the Buginese or their language; = Bugis, adj.
  Dusun1897–
  
  Of or relating to the Dusun people or their language.
  Pangasinan1904–
  
  Of, relating to, or designating the Pangasinan or their language.
  Lifuan1917–
  
  Of or pertaining to Lifu, its people, or its language.
  Pilipino1936–
  
  Of or relating to the language Pilipino.
  Marshallese1945–
  
  Of, belonging to, or relating to the Marshallese people or language.
  Yami1953–
  
  General attributive or as adj.
  Tolai1963–
  
  General attributive.
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  the world the earth named regions of earth Malaysia and Indonesia [adjectives] Indonesia Federation of
  Indonesian1948–
  
  (a) Of or belonging to the East Indian islands; spec. pertaining to those Malay inhabitants of these islands who approximate to an Indian type…
  View in Historical Thesaurus

Frequency

Indonesian typically occurs about six times per million words in modern written English.

Indonesian is in frequency band 5, which contains words occurring between 1 and 10 times per million words in modern written English. More about OED's frequency bands

Frequency data is computed programmatically, and should be regarded as an estimate.

Frequency of Indonesian, n. & adj., 1850–2010

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Historical frequency series are derived from Google Books Ngrams (version 2), a data set based on the Google Books corpus of several million books printed in English between 1500 and 2010.

The overall frequency for a given word is calculated by summing frequencies for the main form of the word, any plural or inflected forms, and any major spelling variations.

For sets of homographs (distinct entries that share the same word-form, e.g. mole, n.¹, mole, n.², mole, n.³, etc.), we have estimated the frequency of each homograph entry as a fraction of the total Ngrams frequency for the word-form. This may result in inaccuracies.

Smoothing has been applied to series for lower-frequency words, using a moving-average algorithm. This reduces short-term fluctuations, which may be produced by variability in the content of the Google Books corpus.

Decade	Frequency per million words
1850	0.046
1860	0.035
1870	0.0062
1880	0.039
1890	0.079
1900	0.15
1910	0.2
1920	0.27
1930	1.2
1940	3.1
1950	5.3
1960	6.5
1970	6.4
1980	6.1
1990	6.2
2000	6.4
2010	6.6

Frequency of Indonesian, n. & adj., 2017–2023

* Occurrences per million words in written English

Modern frequency series are derived from a corpus of 20 billion words, covering the period from 2017 to the present. The corpus is mainly compiled from online news sources, and covers all major varieties of World English.

Period	Frequency per million words
Oct.–Dec. 2017	4.4
Jan.–Mar. 2018	4.6
Apr.–June 2018	5.6
July–Sept. 2018	6.6
Oct.–Dec. 2018	6.8
Jan.–Mar. 2019	6.2
Apr.–June 2019	5.7
July–Sept. 2019	5.4
Oct.–Dec. 2019	5.3
Jan.–Mar. 2020	4.4
Apr.–June 2020	4.0
July–Sept. 2020	3.7
Oct.–Dec. 2020	4.4
Jan.–Mar. 2021	4.7
Apr.–June 2021	4.7
July–Sept. 2021	4.2
Oct.–Dec. 2021	3.9
Jan.–Mar. 2022	3.9
Apr.–June 2022	4.0
July–Sept. 2022	4.5
Oct.–Dec. 2022	4.4
Jan.–Mar. 2023	4.5

Personal account

Indonesiannoun & adjective

Quotations

Earlier version

Factsheet

What does the word Indonesian mean?

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How is the word Indonesian pronounced?

British English

Where does the word Indonesian come from?

Nearby entries

Etymology

Meaning & use

Quotations

Contents

Earlier version

Pronunciation

British English

Consonants

Vowels

Other symbols

Frequency

Frequency of Indonesian, n. & adj., 1850–2010

Frequency of Indonesian, n. & adj., 2017–2023