Bimasakti
Indonesian
Etymology
From Malay Bima Sakti, from Javanese ꦧꦶꦩꦱꦼꦏ꧀ꦠꦶ (bimasekti), ultimately put together from Sanskrit भीम (bhīma). (a character from the Mahabharata, a popular epic in Javanese culture) and Sanskrit शक्ति (śakti, “magical power”). This was derived from a Javanese myth that imagines the Milky Way in the sky as Bhima (the white stars) fighting a great snake (the black stripes).
Proper noun
Bimasakti
- (standard) the Milky Way
Alternative forms
- Bima Sakti (nonstandard, common, astronomy)
Further reading
- “Bimasakti”, in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia [Great Dictionary of the Indonesian Language] (in Indonesian), Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016