Ever since Apple removed the 3.5 mm headphone jack from the iPhone in 2016, wireless earbuds have exploded in popularity, with numerous versions of different shapes and sizes being on the market. Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka (DBP), the nation’s foremost authority on Bahasa Malaysia, has finally gotten with the times, revealing on Instagram what these little beans are called in Malay – ‘fon putik’.
‘Putik’ is the Malay word for bud, a plant shoot that is “undeveloped or embryonic” (per Wikipedia), like a flower bud. It also refers to anything small that is shaped like a bud, which is why cotton buds are called ‘putik kapas’.
Directly translated, ‘fon putik’ means ‘bud phones’; the Malay term for earphones is ‘fon telinga’. A cursory Google search revealed that many BM product listings on Lazada and Shopee also use the term ‘putik telinga’, the direct translation for earbuds.
The agency has been adding tech-related terms to the Kamus Dewan dictionary for several years now, including ‘tatal lara‘ (doomscrollling), ‘tonton lewah‘ (binge-watching) and, most famously, ‘tunafoto‘ (photobomb). It also caused a stir last year when it announced that the correct Malay spelling for ‘kuey teow’, the flat rice noodle, is actually ‘kuetiau‘.
