dato

[dah-toh, dah-taw]

noun

plural

datos 

1. datu.

2. the headman of a barrio or of a Malay tribe.

dato

/ ˈdɑːtəʊ /

noun

1. the chief of any of certain Muslim tribes in the Philippine Islands

Word History and Origins

Origin of dato¹

First recorded in 1610–20 as Datoe; partly from Malay datu, datto “ruler, chief,” and its variant datok, datuk “grandfather, elder,” partly from Indonesian datuk “head of the family, chieftain”; akin to datu ( def. )

Word History and Origins

Origin of dato¹

C19: from Spanish, ultimately from Malay dato' grandfather