hampir

Inconclusive.

• There is possibility that Malay hampir is a loanword from Dutch amper (“scarcely, barely”) as its high and almost universal usage in Flemish, which in turn was derived from Middle Dutch amper (“sour”), which had similar semantic development to German sehr (“very”) and Alemannic German rüüdig (“very”) and cognates of Swedish amper and German Ampfer.
• Alternatively, it can originate from Proto-Malayic *(h)ampɪŋ (“close to”).^[1] Thus, doublet of samping.

• IPA^(key): /ham.pir/

• Audio:

  (file)

hampir

1. almost (very close to)

   Synonym: nyaris

• “hampir”, 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

Inconclusive.

• There is possibility that Malay hampir is a loanword from Dutch amper (“scarcely, barely”) as its high and almost universal usage in Flemish, which in turn was derived from Middle Dutch amper (“sour”), which had similar semantic development to German sehr (“very”) and Alemannic German rüüdig (“very”) and cognates of Swedish amper and German Ampfer.
• Alternatively, it can originate from Proto-Malayic *(h)ampɪŋ (“close to”).^[1] Thus, doublet of samping.

• IPA^(key): /ham.pɪ(r)/
• Rhymes: -ir

hampir

1. almost (very close to)