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