datu

American  

[dah-too] / ˈdɑ tu /

noun

datu, plural datus plural

1. (in the Philippines) a Native chief.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• datu
  plural
• datus
  plural

Etymology

Origin of datu

First recorded in 1925–30; from Tagalog datu, dato “landowner, head of a clan or tribe”; akin to dato ( def. )

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

datu datus

He says the chests were given to him by a datu, or tribal chief.

From BusinessWeek ● Jan. 18, 2012

Therefore they must wait until every datu from the farthest Moro island had arrived.

From Time Magazine Archive

Since all the people assist in the support of the datu they consider his home to be, to a certain extent, their own and make use of it and its furnishings without question.

From The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao The R. F. Cummings Philippine Expedition by Cole, Fay-Cooper

Public opinion is sufficient to prevent most crimes; the fear of offending the spirits is a further deterrent; while the final bar is the drastic punishment meted out by the datu.

From The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao The R. F. Cummings Philippine Expedition by Cole, Fay-Cooper

In his own district the power of the datu is very great, but even he is obliged to respect the laws and customs handed down by the ancestors.

From The Wild Tribes of Davao District, Mindanao The R. F. Cummings Philippine Expedition by Cole, Fay-Cooper

Many Moro datus, maharajahs, panglimas and imams retired to their secret strongholds to prepare for the struggle.

From Time Magazine Archive

On the same day that the National Assembly met in Manila the datus assembled at Jolo, determined to make Rajamuda Sultan.

From Time Magazine Archive

The Sooloo seas are comparatively little frequented by them, as they are unable to dispose of the produce of their fisheries for want of a market, and fear the exactions of the datus.

From The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898 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, Volume XLIII, 1670-1700 by Various

The datus seldom rise before eleven o'clock, unless they have some particular business; and the Datu Mulu complained of being sleepy in consequence of the early hour at which we had disturbed him.

From The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes by Craig, Austin

It was said that peace is made by hand-to-hand fights in which single pairs of opponents fight until the datus who act as umpires award the victory to one or the other.

From The Manóbos of Mindanáo Memoirs of the National Academy of Sciences, Volume XXIII, First Memoir by Garvan, John M.