dato

American  

[dah-toh, dah-taw] / ˈdɑ toʊ, ˈdɑ tɔ /

noun

plural

datos

1. datu.

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

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dato British  

/ ˈdɑːtəʊ /

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of dato

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. )

Example Sentences

If the captain would pay now, the dato said, the men would begin taking the pepper to the ship.

From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham

Then the dato could urge his men to greater effort.

From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham

At last the dato said he would have pepper for the Putnam tomorrow’.

From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham

One morning when Nat went ashore, the dato spread his hands and sighed.

From "Carry On, Mr. Bowditch" by Jean Lee Latham

The Spaniards who were with Manaquior went down to the lake with the dato; and Balatamay was there with five hundred Moros, waiting for the Spaniards, to fight against them.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 29 of 55 Explorations by Early Navigators, Descriptions of the Islands and Their Peoples, Their History and Records of the Catholic Missions, as Related in Contemporaneous Books and Manuscripts, Showing the Political, Economic, Commercial and Religious Conditions of Those Islands from Their Earliest Relations with European Nations to the Close of the Nineteenth Century by Various