wayang

• wajang

Transliteration of Javanese ꦮꦪꦁ (wayang, “shadow; imagination; puppetry”), from Old Javanese wayaṅ via Malay wayang. Cognate with Dutch wajang.

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): /ˈwɑjɑŋ/

wayang (countable and uncountable, plural wayangs or wayang)

1. Traditional Indonesian arts performance (shadow puppetry, theatrical, dance, etc.) originating from Java island.
2. A shadow theatre performance, or such performances in general.
3. (Malaysia, Singapore, music) Any traditional theatrical work, combining drama, music, song and sometimes dance.
   1. (Singapore) Traditional Chinese opera, performed outdoors. The equivalent term in Mandarin is 街戲 / 街戏 (jiēxì, literally “street opera”).
4. (Singapore, Singlish) Insincere behaviour; an act meant to deceive or mislead.
   • 1991 January 3, Lim Boon Heng, “CONSTITUTION OF THE REPUBLIC OF SINGAPORE (AMENDMENT NO. 3) BILL”, in Parliamentary Debates: Official Report (Parliament of Singapore), volume 56, quoted in Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English, column 724:

     There had been two important reservations made on the practice of consultation and consensus. […] The other reservation is that consultation and consensus is no more than a “wayang”, because views are not accepted and no changes are made to the original policy.

   • 2006 April 24, Tan Dawn Wei, The Straits Times, quoted in Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English, Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings Limited:

     Besides being adept at directing actors from behind the camera, [Royston] Tan is a bit of a wayang king himself.

   • 2006 April 27, Lydia Lim, quoting Chee Soon Juan, The Straits Times, quoted in Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English, Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings Limited:

     Dr Chee called the polls a ‘wayang’ and said they were being held so that the PAP could claim to have the people’s mandate to govern.

   • 2006 May 11, Leslie Koh, Aaron Low, quoting Inderjit Singh, The Straits Times, quoted in Jack Tsen-Ta Lee, A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English, Singapore: Singapore Press Holdings Limited:

     Mr [Inderjit] Singh […] had said earlier that Mr [James] Gomez told him the minority certificate incident was just a ‘wayang’, Malay for theatre.

   • 2007, lobert, soc.culture.singapore‎^[1] (Usenet):

     They have to review whether they have revealed too much to the public before the wayang goes on.

wayang (mostly invariable)

1. (Singapore, Singlish) To put up a front, to pretend (e.g., to be hard at work when one’s superiors are watching) or behave in a false and misleading way, especially if it puts one at an advantage.
   • 2008, Zai Zai, soc.culture.singapore‎^[2] (Usenet):

     […] some [MPs] have to do wayang wayang in the evening like meet the people sessions.

   • 2024 December 8, Nadine Lee, quoting Jade, in-house counsel, “Singaporeans Confess How They’re Wayang-ing the December Blues Away At Work”, in ricemedia.co‎^[3], archived from the original on 8 December 2024:

     It’s taboo to say that you’re free, even if you have nothing to do, because that’s like asking to get fired. I think it’s obvious whether someone’s actually busy or just wayang-ing—they start toggling between the same documents or surreptitiously using their phone—we just don’t talk about it.

wayang (not comparable)

1. (Singapore, Singlish, never attributive) For show, insincere or fake; ostentatious and showy.

Sometimes reduplicated, as a verb or an adjective.

• “wayang”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• Lee, Jack Tsen-Ta (2004) “wayang”, in A Dictionary of Singlish and Singapore English‎^[4]

wayáng

1. open plain, extensive grounds in a broad valley, or the like

Borrowed from Javanese ꦮꦪꦁ (wayang, “shadow; imagination”), from Old Javanese wayaṅ. Doublet of bayang.

• IPA^(key): /ˈwa.jaŋ/
• Hyphenation: wa‧yang

wayang (plural wayang-wayang)

1. shadow play:
   1. (Indonesia) traditional arts performance (shadow puppetry, theatrical, dance, etc.) originally from Javanese culture
   2. puppet in the shadow play
   3. the performance of shadow play
2. (figurative) puppet (a person, country, etc, controlled by another); overbeared
3. (figurative) synonym of bayang-bayang

• “wayang” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Agency for Language Development and Cultivation – Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic of Indonesia, 2016.

wayang

1. romanization of ꦮꦪꦁ

Borrowed from Javanese ꦮꦪꦁ (wayang, “shadow; imagination”), from Old Javanese wayaṅ. Doublet of bayang. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.).

• Audio (Malaysia):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -aŋ
• Rhymes: -jaŋ

wayang (Jawi spelling وايڠ, plural wayang-wayang)

1. shadow play traditional among the Javanese and Kelantanese
   1. shadow theatre performance
2. any live traditional theatrical performance

   wayang bangsawan: bangsawan, a kind of traditional Malay theatre (lit. 'aristocrat play')

   wayang Cina: Chinese opera

3. (informal) ellipsis of wayang gambar (“motion picture; movie”)

   Andy ajak kita tengok wayang. ― Andy is inviting us to watch a movie.

• → Hokkien: 花英 (hoa-iaⁿ) (?)

• Pijnappel, Jan (1875) “وايڠ wajang”, in Maleisch-Hollandsch woordenboek, John Enschede en Zonen, Frederik Muller, page 142
• Wilkinson, Richard James (1901) “وايڠ wayang”, in A Malay-English dictionary, Hong Kong: Kelly & Walsh limited, page 678
• Wilkinson, Richard James (1932) “wayang”, in A Malay-English dictionary (romanised), volume II, Mytilene, Greece: Salavopoulos & Kinderlis, page 648

• “wayang” in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu | Malay Literary Reference Centre, Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017.