Etymology
Where does the name "Indonesia" originate?
Indonesia
The name "Indonesia" derives from the Greek words "Indós" and "nèsos", which means "island". The name dates to the 18th century, far predating the formation of independent Indonesia. In 1850, George Windsor Earl, an English ethnologist, proposed the terms "Indunesians" — and, his preference, "Malayunesians" — for the inhabitants of the "Indian Archipelago or Malayan Archipelago". In the same publication, a student of Earl's, James Richardson Logan, used "Indonesia" as a synonym for "Indian Archipelago". However, Dutch academics writing in East Indies publications were reluctant to use "Indonesia". Instead, they used the terms "Malay Archipelago" ("Maleische Archipel"); the "Netherlands East Indies" ("Nederlandsch Oost Indië"), popularly "Indië"; "the East" ("de Oost"); and "Insulinde". After 1900, the name "Indonesia" became more common in academic circles outside the Netherlands, and Indonesian nationalist groups adopted it for political expression. Adolf Bastian, of the University of Berlin, popularized the name through his book "Indonesien oder die Inseln des Malayischen Archipels, 1884–1894". The first Indonesian scholar to use the name was Suwardi Suryaningrat (Ki Hajar Dewantara), when he established a press bureau in the Netherlands with the name "Indonesisch Pers-bureau" in 1913.