# Macau
## English
### Alternative forms

* Macao, Amacao

### Etymology

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

### Pronunciation

* IPA: /məˈkaʊ/
* Rhymes: -aʊ
* Audio (Canada):(file)

### Proper noun

Macau
* A special administrative region of the People's Republic of China, west of Hong Kong, previously under Portuguese control.
** 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, 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, 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, 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.
** 2015 September 12, Jochen Faget, “Crisis in China's gambling paradise”, in DW News‎, archived from the original on 12 September 2015‎: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, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 23 March 2023, Business‎: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.

#### Synonyms

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

#### Derived terms

* Macanese

#### Translations
### See also

Province-level divisions of the People's Republic of China in English (layout · text) :
* Provinces: Anhui · Fujian · Guangdong · Gansu · Guizhou · Henan · Hubei · Hebei · Hainan · Heilongjiang · Hunan · Jilin · Jiangsu · Jiangxi · Liaoning · Qinghai · Sichuan · Shandong · Shaanxi · Shanxi · Taiwan (claimed) · Yunnan · Zhejiang
* Autonomous regions: Guangxi · Inner Mongolia · Ningxia · Tibet Autonomous Region · Xinjiang
* Municipalities: Beijing · Tianjin · Shanghai · Chongqing
* Special administrative regions: Hong Kong · Macau

### Further reading

* “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

### Anagrams

* Cà Mau, cauma

## Catalan
### Pronunciation

* IPA: (Central, Balearic) [məˈkaw]
* IPA: (Valencia) [maˈkaw]

### Proper noun

Macau m
* Macau (a city and special administrative region of China)

#### Derived terms

* macauenc

## Macanese
### Etymology

From Portuguese Macau.

### Proper noun

Macau
* Macau (a city and special administrative region of China)

#### Derived terms

* Macau-filo
* Macau-paio

## Portuguese
### Alternative forms

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

### Etymology

From Hokkien, possibly either:
* 媽閣／妈阁 (Má Koh), 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), 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／妈阁庙】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／妈阁庙】to worship the Fujianese sea goddess, Mazu, known in Hokkien 阿媽 / 阿妈 (A-má, “grandmother”) as an epithet. 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.

### Pronunciation

* (Brazil) IPA: /maˈkaw/ [maˈkaʊ̯]
* (Portugal) IPA: /mɐˈkaw/
* Audio (Brazil):(file)
* Rhymes: -aw
* Hyphenation: Ma‧cau

### Proper noun

Macau m
* Macau (a city and special administrative region of China)

#### Usage notes

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

#### Derived terms

* macaense

### References

* ↑ 吳福文 (1999) “客家與澳門”, in 开放与传播‎, number 4, 福建之富网络信息有限公司 Fujian Window Internet Information Co., Ltd., archived from the original on January 13, 2008
* ↑ Wu Zhiliang, Jin Guoping (2014) “The evolution of spellings of ‘Macau’: An examination of early Portuguese and Western archival materials”, in Katrine K. Wong, C. X. George Wei, editors, Macao – Cultural Interaction and Literary Representations‎, New York: Routledge, →ISBN, pages 3-11
* ↑ 徐曉望 (2006) “嚴啟盛與澳門史事考 — 兼論澳門媽閣廟的創建”, in 《文化雜誌》‎, number 58, archived from the original on 2019-10-31, pages 195-200
* ↑ 石奕龍 (2003) “關於澳門媽祖信仰形成問題的辨識”, in 《文化雜誌》‎, number 49, archived from the original on 2019-10-31, pages 179-182

## Spanish
### Pronunciation

* IPA: /maˈkau/ [maˈkau̯]
* Rhymes: -au

### Proper noun

Macau ?
* Alternative form of Macao

### Further reading

* “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

## Tagalog
### Pronunciation

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

### Proper noun

Macáu (Baybayin spelling ᜋᜃᜏ᜔)
* Alternative spelling of Makaw