# On the Origin of Jawas
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [September 23, 2003, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278 "2003-09-23T07:59:49Z")
**Posts on this page:** 18
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 7:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/1 "2003-09-23T07:59:49Z")
Last month, while reading Howard Pyle’s Book of Pirates, copyright 1921, I came across the following remarkable passage in the short story “The Ruby of Kishmoor”:
“As she spoke, she drew aside her veil, and disclosed to the vision of our hero a countenance of the most extraordinary and striking beauty. Her luminous eyes were like those of a Jawa, and set beneath exquisitely arched and penciled brows.”
I did a double-take. Her eyes were like those of a _Jawa???!!!_
Now to me, ever since I was four years old, the word Jawa has meant a little alien guy who lives long ago in a galaxy far far away, wears a brown cloak, shoots droids for a living, drives a sandcrawler and shouts “Outini!” for no apparent reason. Oh, and who has little luminous eyes. I had about as much expectation of finding the word “Jawa” in a 1921 short story about pirates as I did of finding Jimmy Hoffa under my sink.
My Merriam-Webster dictionary does not have the word “Jawa” in it. Neither does the Unabridged Oxford English Dictionary in my college library. Query: what the hell was Howard Pyle was talking about when he said the heroine’s eyes were like those of a Jawa?
The fact that the eyes of Pyle’s heroine were “luminous,” and luminous eyes are the most prominent physical feature (indeed the only apparent physical feature) of Jawas in Star Wars suggests that the similarity of names is not a coincidence.
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### Author:  [@Earthworm\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earthworm_Jim)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 1:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/2 "2003-09-23T13:41:02Z")
Well, I find a definition [here](http://www.ggr.ulaval.ca/ATLAS_J/Gloss.html) :
> [@](#):
>
> Jawa
> (Sanskrit) Originally used to designate a cereal plant, millet. Is has ben used to refer to the Javanese region per se and finally the whole island.
Searching for “Jawa people” at google reveals a few interesting links. [Here’s](http://www.joshuaproject.net/Assets/Profiles/jpgx83.htm) the first.
So it seems the word itself was not a Lucas original creation.
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### Author:  [@Nangleator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nangleator)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/3 "2003-09-23T14:40:13Z")
Outini!\*
A reference from 1921? It seems my plan of stealing a copy of Ep. 4 and taking it back in a time machine for my own benefit works out, some day.
Outini!
- Jawanese for “Excellent”
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/4 "2003-09-23T17:32:37Z")
Look up “Ferengi” sometime.
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### Author:  [@Danimal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danimal)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/5 "2003-09-23T23:19:53Z")
So Pyle was saying her eyes were as luminous as a Javanese’s? Interesting, I had no idea Javanese had a reputation as bright-eyed folk.
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### Author:  [@Sir\_Dirx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Dirx)
#### Post date: [September 23, 2003, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/6 "2003-09-23T23:54:32Z")
[nitpick]
> [@](#):
>
> Outini!
>
> - Jawanese for “Excellent”
According to the [Star Wars Card Game](http://www.decipher.com/starwars/cardlists/premiere/light/large/utinni.html), ‘Utinni’ means “Come Here.”
(which still doesn’t make sense when, in the video games, the Jawas always scream “Utinni” when blasted to smithereens.)
[nitpick]
As for Lucas taking words and names and using them in the movies, well, he apparently does that a lot. The worst case, in my opinion, is the names of three aliens: Klaatu, Barada, and Nikto. Ok, it’s probably a send-up to the original source, but still…
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### Author:  [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/7 "2003-09-24T00:26:15Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sir Dirx \*
> **[nitpick]
> According to the [Star Wars Card Game](http://www.decipher.com/starwars/cardlists/premiere/light/large/utinni.html), ‘Utinni’ means “Come Here.”
> (which still doesn’t make sense when, in the video games, the Jawas always scream “Utinni” when blasted to smithereens.)**
Maybe they’re like the Black Night. You know, “Come back here, I’ll bite your legs off!”
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/8 "2003-09-24T00:42:06Z")
When do we see Jawas get blasted? In Ep 4 the Jawa slaughter happens off-screen. Might you be thinking of that “Troopers” parody? (Which, tho funny as hell, is probably not canon 🙂 )
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### Author:  [@Max\_Carnage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Carnage)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/9 "2003-09-24T00:49:41Z")
as he said…“in the video games”
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### Author:  [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/10 "2003-09-24T00:49:41Z")
Doh! You’re talking about video games, not the movies :smack:
Apparently, I need to go to bed early tonight.
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### Author:  [@dangergene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangergene)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/11 "2003-09-24T06:48:18Z")
Jawa is also Mandarin for ‘cosmetic’.
I was amused when many years ago I saw the lion exhibit in the Shanghai zoo was sponsored by the Shanghai Jawa Corporation (!)
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### Author:  [@Dunderman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dunderman)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/12 "2003-09-24T08:09:24Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sir Dirx \*
> \*\*The worst case, in my opinion, is the names of three aliens: Klaatu, Barada, and Nikto. Ok, it’s probably a send-up to the original source, but still… \*\*
Come on! That’s _funny_, and a pretty obvious homage. If artists of various disciplines can’t do that, the terrorists have already won.
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### Author:  [@sjc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sjc)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/13 "2003-09-24T20:55:45Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sir Dirx \*
> \*\*
> As for Lucas taking words and names and using them in the movies, well, he apparently does that a lot. The worst case, in my opinion, is the names of three aliens: Klaatu, Barada, and Nikto. Ok, it’s probably a send-up to the original source, but still… \*\*
What _is_ the original source?
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### Author:  [@Sir\_Dirx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Dirx)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/14 "2003-09-24T21:17:12Z")
I think it’s from The Day the Earth Stood Still, but I’ve got a notoriously awful memory, so I could very well be wrong.
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### Author:  [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)
#### Post date: [September 24, 2003, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/15 "2003-09-24T21:21:54Z")
“Klaatu barada nikto!” is a command to the robot Gort in the classic sci-fi picture _The Day the Earth Stood Still_ (1952). Klaatu is the alien visitor played by Michael Rennie.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2003, 11:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/16 "2003-09-25T11:46:20Z")
“Klaatu: “Baretta!” " Nicktoons!” "
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2003, 12:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/17 "2003-09-25T12:04:27Z")
> [@](#):
>
> \*Originally posted by Sir Dirx \*
> \*\*As for Lucas taking words and names and using them in the movies, well, he apparently does that a lot. The worst case, in my opinion, is the names of three aliens: Klaatu, Barada, and Nikto. Ok, it’s probably a send-up to the original source, but still… \*\*
Lucas didn’t do this, you can blame the sculptors and designers, who named most of the background creatures themselves, nd those that weren’t already named by them were subsequently named by Lucas Licensing.
Having said that, George does borrow names a lot, most obviously Tatouine, which is a Tunisian township close by to where the desert scenes were filmed.
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### Author:  [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)
#### Post date: [September 25, 2003, 12:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/on-the-origin-of-jawas/203278/18 "2003-09-25T12:14:36Z")
There is also Talus and Tralus, two SW planets, which are also bones in the human leg. And lots of other SW place names are repetitive… Vjun-Dxun, Alderaan-Onderon, Tatooine-Dantooine, etc.
In Men in Black, K makes mention of a Corellian Death Ray.
Homages are common, especially in sci-fi.