Batak
1 Americannoun
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Bataks,
plural
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Batak
plural
-
a member of a diverse group of Indigenous peoples chiefly inhabiting north-central Sumatra.
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any of the Austronesian languages spoken by the Batak in Sumatra.
adjective
noun
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Bataks,
plural
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Batak
plural
-
a member of an Indigenous mountain-dwelling people from northeastern Palawan in the Philippines.
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the Austronesian language spoken by the Batak in Palawan.
adjective
Other Word Forms
Noun Inflected Forms
Etymology
Origin of Batak1
First recorded in 1810–20; from Batak (a subgroup of Austronesian languages spoken in the Indonesian province of North Sumatra and adjacent areas); a self-designation
Origin of Batak2
First recorded in 1900–05; from Tagbanwa, Tagbanua, Tagbanuwa (any of three Austronesian languages that are not mutually intelligible)
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
—Delima Silalahi, a Batak woman from North Sumatra, Indonesia, who organized Indigenous communities across the country to advocate for their rights to traditional forests.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 24, 2023
BBC said Reynhard was born in 1983 into a conservative Christian family, part of the Batak tribe from the island of Sumatra.
From Fox News ● Jan. 7, 2020
The oldest of four children, Sinaga was born in 1983 into a conservative Christian family, part of the Batak tribe from the island of Sumatra.
From BBC ● Jan. 7, 2020
The elders debate in a mix of languages – Batak and bahasa Indonesia – while sipping tea and planning how they will resume the fight the next day.
From The Guardian ● Sep. 4, 2017
But, further, each Batak believes that he has seven or, on a more moderate computation, three souls.
From The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer
Such a people are the Bataks of Sumatra.
From The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer
The Karo Bataks even affirm that of a man’s two souls it is the true soul that lives with the placenta under the house; that is the soul, they say, which begets children.
From The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer
Wilken720 says of the Bataks that a slave, by diligence and thrift, can always buy himself.
From Folkways A Study of the Sociological Importance of Usages, Manners, Customs, Mores, and Morals by William Graham Sumner
The Bataks of Sumatra have a ceremony which they call “making the curse to fly away.”
From The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer
According to the Bataks it is bound up with the child’s welfare, and seems, in fact, to be the seat of the transferable soul, of which we shall hear something later on.
From The Golden Bough by Sir James George Frazer
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
