Oldest Instances of Spree Killings?

[jbaker]

@Colibri

I understand that amok is the only common word that has entered English from Malay.

Ketchup/catsup, from Malay kechap, comes to mind.

[spikebrennan]

@Colibri

I understand that amok is the only common word that has entered English from Malay.

Ketchup comes to mind immediately, but here’s a list of some more:

List of English words of Malay origin

[Colibri]

@Monty

What about orangutan?

@jbaker

Ketchup/catsup, from Malay kechap, comes to mind.

@spikebrennan

Ketchup comes to mind immediately, but here’s a list of some more:

List of English words of Malay origin - Wikipedia

I guess I was misinformed.

[Monty]

@Colibri

I guess I was misinformed.

No problem. Here’s a fun incident from my past: while at sea, my best friends and I would memorize phrases and basic vocabulary for the language of our next port-of-call. One at-sea period, the language we studied was bahasa.

[RearEchelon]

Methinks it would be a lot harder to kill a room full of people with only a sword unless you happen to be Uma Thurman.

[pulykamell]

@jbaker

Ketchup/catsup, from Malay kechap, comes to mind.

That one is questionable, and the Wikipedia list of Malay origin words doesn’t list it.

From etymonline.com:

ketchup (n.)
1711, said to be from Malay kichap, but probably not original to Malay. It might have come from Chinese koechiap “brine of fish,” which, if authentic, perhaps is from the Chinese community in northern Vietnam [Terrien de Lacouperie, in “Babylonian and Oriental Record,” 1889, 1890]. Catsup (earlier catchup, 1680s) is a failed attempt at Anglicization, still in use in U.S., influenced by cat and sup.