tekan

See also: tẹ kan and tɛ kan

English

Etymology

From Malay tekan (“to press or pressure”).

Pronunciation

• (Singapore) IPA^(key): [ˌtəˈkan], [ˌtə˧ˈkan˦]

Verb

tekan (invariable)

1. (Singapore, colloquial, slang) To bully or treat harshly, to punish (especially in military contexts).
   • 1992 February 22, soc.culture.asean‎^[1] (Usenet):

     "Wah lau! You tekan him, ah? But he bigger than you, man!"

   • 2003 October 17, “Questions thick and fast in Parliament”, in TODAY, page 2:

     We have also been through training and we all kena tekan (were bullied), but even if we were ill-treated, we didn’t know that we were being ill-treated

   • 2009 July 8, “Victim offered sex: Attackers”, in TODAY, page 10:

     When Hamdan joined their cell, Iryan told him the 1.6m-tall victim was someone they could tekan (bully).

   • 2013 July 17, “Paige Chua wears the pants”, in TODAY, page 60:

     It will expose us to different ways of thought … like waking up at 4am and being tekan.

Anagrams

• Kenta, taken

Gothic

Romanization

tēkan

1. romanization of 𐍄𐌴𐌺𐌰𐌽

Indonesian

Alternative forms

• teken (colloquial)

Etymology

Inherited from Malay tekan, from Proto-Malayic *təkən, from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *təkən (“downward pressure; bamboo punting pole”).

Pronunciation

• (Standard Indonesian) IPA^(key): /təˈkan/ [t̪əˈkan]
• Rhymes: -an
• Syllabification: te‧kan

Verb

têkan (active menekan, reflexive passive tertekan, ordinary passive ditekan, imperative tekan, emphatic-jussive tekanlah)

1. to press

Derived terms

Affixed terms

• bersetekan
• bertekan
• bertekanan
• menekan
• menekankan
• penekan
• penekanan
• tekanan
• tertekan
• tertekan-tekan

Further reading

• “tekan”, 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
• Blust, Robert; Trussel, Stephen; et al. (2023) “*teken”, in the CLDF dataset from The Austronesian Comparative Dictionary (2010–), →DOI

Malay

Etymology

From Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *təkən (“downward pressure; bamboo punting pole”). Cognate with Tagalog tikin (“a bamboo pole for propelling boats in shallow streams”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /təkan/

Verb

tekan (Jawi spelling تکن)

menekan

1. to press

   Tekan butang tu, cepat!

   Quick, press the button!

2. (of pumps, dispensers etc) to pump, to inject something by pushing on a pump etc

   Jem ni manis sangat, jangan tekan banyak masuk donat tu.

   The jelly is too sweet, don't fill in the donut with it [too much].

menekankan

1. to pressure i.e. to strongly or aggressively encourage towards a particular action; to pressurise

   Cik Farid ditekankan untuk menandatangani kontrak tersebut.

   Mr. Farid was pressurised into signing the contract.

Derived terms

• tekanan (“pressure”)
• penekanan (“the act of pressing or pressurising”)

Descendants

• Indonesian: tekan
• → English: tekan

Further reading

• "tekan" in Pusat Rujukan Persuratan Melayu (PRPM) [Malay Literary Reference Centre (PRPM)] (in Malay), Kuala Lumpur: Dewan Bahasa dan Pustaka, 2017
• Austronesian Comparative Dictionary