mardijker

Dutch

Etymology

From Indonesian merdeka (free) +‎ -er. Compare to Tagalog maharlika (freeman).

Pronunciation

  • Hyphenation: mar‧dij‧ker

Noun

mardijker m (plural mardijkers, diminutive mardijkertje n)

  1. (Indonesia, Netherlands) former slave (especially Portuguese or Dutch), who was converted to Christianity. Mostly used in the time of the VOC presence in Indonesia