Macau

• Macao, Amacao

Borrowed from Portuguese Macau, from Hokkien. See Portuguese Macau for more info.

• IPA^(key): /məˈkaʊ/
• Rhymes: -aʊ

• Audio (Canada):

  (file)

Macau

2. A city, special administrative region, and peninsula in China, west of Hong Kong.
   • 2015 September 12, Jochen Faget, “Crisis in China's gambling paradise”, in DW News‎^[5], archived from the original on 12 September 2015‎^[6]:

     Open 24 hours a day and seven days a week, Macau's 35 casinos entertain around 30 million visitors each year, making over 30 billion euros in revenue. These are figures which make the US gambling city of Las Vegas look like a desert village. […]
     Macau is the only place in China where gambling is officially permitted. Until the end of 1999, the peninsula was a Portuguese colony. Since it was handed back to China, the city of 600,000 people located at the mouth of the Pearl River has been a largely autonomous Special Administrative Region (SAR).

   • 2023 March 22, Nicole Hong, Alexandra Stevenson, “China Approves an mRNA Covid Vaccine, Its First”, in The New York Times‎^[7], →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 March 2023, Business‎^[8]:

     At the height of the Covid wave, some mainland residents ventured across the border to the Chinese territory of Macau to find foreign-made mRNA vaccines.

4. (historical) a former Portuguese colony in modern southern China between 1557 and 1999.
   • 1598, “24 Of the courſe out of the Hauen of Macau in China to the Iſland of Pulo Tymon, & the ſtraight of Sincapura.”, in W. P., transl., The Nauigation of the Portingales into the Eaſt Indies‎^[9], London: John Wolfe, page 349:

     When you depart from Macau to ye other coaſt, you must put out at the Eaſt chanel, if the wind bee Northweſt, if not, then you cannot paſſe, that way, but you muſt ſayle thorough the ſouthweſt chanel, which is a good way to paſſe out, running from the point of Varella, right unto the land on the other ſide of Macau, […]

   • [1671, Arnoldus Montanus, translated by John Ogilby, Atlas Chinensis‎^[10], London: Tho. Johnson, translation of original in Dutch, →OCLC, page 531:

     SOuthward from the County of Quancheufu, lie many ſmall Iſlands in the Sea ; on one of which, being a little hanging Iſle, or rather a Rock, joyn'd to a great Iſland, lieth the City Makao, otherwiſe call'd Amacao, Machao, and Makau, poſſeſs'd by the Portugueſe, on a Promontory, ſo naturally Fortifi'd, that it is almoſt invincible.]

   • 1990, Shann Davies, Macau‎^[11], Passport Books, →ISBN Invalid ISBN, page 10:

     Within 20 years, Macau had become an international city and one of the richest places on earth, thanks to investment in the cargoes shipped through the port.

• (from Mandarin Chinese) Aomen (especially in the Chinese media)

• Macanese

• “Macau”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• Category:Macau on Wikimedia Commons.Wikimedia Commons
• Macau on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• Macau on Wikiquote.Wikiquote
• Macau on Wikivoyage.Wikivoyage

• Cà Mau, cauma

• IPA^(key): (Central, Balearic) [məˈkaw]
• IPA^(key): (Valencia) [maˈkaw]

Macau m

1. Macau (a city, special administrative region, and peninsula in China, west of Hong Kong)

• macauenc

From Portuguese Macau.

Macau

1. Macau (a city, special administrative region, and peninsula in China, west of Hong Kong)

• Macau-filo
• Macau-paio

• Macao (pre-standardization spelling)
• Macão, Maquão, Maçhoam, Machoam (a-elided, obsolete)
• Ama Cuão, amaquan, Amacao, Amacão, Amacuão, Amaquão, Amangão, Amagão, Amaquam (obsolete)

From Hokkien, possibly either:

• 媽閣／妈阁 (Má Koh),^[1] Short for 阿媽閣 / 阿妈阁 (A-má Koh), from 阿媽 / 阿妈 (a-má, “grandma Mazu, patron goddess of sailors”) +‎ 閣 / 阁 (koh, “ornamental platform”), as in 公神閣 / 公神阁 (kong-sîn-koh, “a building in which pictures and statues of meritorious officials are displayed”).
• 媽港／妈港 (Má Káng), short for 阿媽港 / 阿妈港 (A-má Káng),^[2] from 阿媽 / 阿妈 (a-má, “grandma Mazu, patron goddess of sailors”) +‎ 港 (káng, “port”).

Both referring to the A-Ma Temple【媽閣廟】or Templo de A-Má in Portuguese, built around 1488 before the city of Macau came into being. The temple was founded by 嚴啟盛 / 严启盛 (Giâm Khé-sēng), a pirate smuggler from Zhangzhou, Fujian who was initially sentenced to death and imprisoned in Zhangzhou Prefecture before later escaping and gathering followers to go out to sea as pirates who later went to Guangdong to recruit more followers where they later first landed in the area of present-day Macau where they built a smuggling base around 1452 or so then later built the A-Ma Temple【媽閣廟】to worship the Fujianese sea goddess, Mazu, known in Hokkien 阿媽 / 阿妈 (A-má, “grandmother”) as an epithet.^[3][4] The initial ⟨A⟩ was later likely elided due to misconstruing with Portuguese a (“towards; to; at; in”). Compare Spanish Macán, Japanese 媽港(マカオ) (makao), Latin Machao.

• Audio (Brazil):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aw
• Hyphenation: Ma‧cau

Macau m

1. Macau (a city, special administrative region, and peninsula in China, west of Hong Kong)

Macau is never indicated by an article; see usage notes for Portugal.

• macaense

Macau m (genitive Mhacau)

1. Macau (a city, special administrative region, and peninsula in China, west of Hong Kong)

• IPA^(key): /maˈkau/ [maˈkau̯]
• Rhymes: -au

Macau ?

1. alternative form of Macao: Macau (a city, special administrative region, and peninsula in China, west of Hong Kong)

• “Macao”, in Diccionario panhispánico de dudas [Panhispanic Dictionary of Doubts] (in Spanish), 2nd edition, Royal Spanish Academy; Association of Academies of the Spanish Language, 2023, →ISBN

• (Standard Tagalog) IPA^(key): /maˈkaw/ [mɐˈxaʊ̯]
• Rhymes: -aw
• Syllabification: Ma‧cau

Macáu (Baybayin spelling ᜋᜃᜏ᜔)

1. alternative spelling of Makaw: Macau (a city, special administrative region, and peninsula in China, west of Hong Kong)