Thick knife frome Bali/Lombok

[A. G. Maisey]

I would have liked to comment in this thread a while back, but I've been a bit busy & have not had time.

With the naming of all things in Malay societies it is probably never a good idea to fix upon just one name for something, & this applies to just about everything, including sharp pointy things.

There are multiple reasons for this, but the most usual ones are local usage, language differences tied to location, use to which the object is put, & language differences tied to hierarchical position of the speaker/writer or the listener/reader.

With that in mind I will comment upon the big Bali knife & the word "wedung".

The big Bali knife is perhaps best described as a "perupak", but I think most Balinese people would simply call it a "tiuk", ie, a "knife", or maybe a "tiuk gedhe", a "big knife", perhaps even a "golok" ("golok" does exist in Balinese).

The word "wedung" (wedhun- a dot over the 'n' indicates the 'n' pronounced as 'ng') occurs in Old Javanese where Zoetmulder gives the meaning of : "a type of wide axe (with a wooden cover)".

In Modern Javanese the word "wedhung" is ngoko, ie, lower level Javanese, in Krama Inggil the word "pasikon" is used, & the meaning is a "cleaver-like knife worn with court dress" or "a sharp pointed knife with a somewhat curved blade worn by aristocrats", the second definition is the more academically correct.

In Bahasa Indonesia the word "wedung" means "cleaver".

The above are all dictionary definitions, but on the street, in real life the knife worn by some nobles in the Surakarta & Jogjakarta kratons is named as either pasikon or wedhung, depending upon the required level of language used.

As far as I can determine, the word "wedung" in whatever spelling does not occur in Sundanese, Balinese or Malay.

The wedung has varying forms, and historically appears to have been worn by nobles in courts other than the Central Javanese courts. My understanding of the usage of this word in Jawa is that a wedung really only becomes a wedhung (ng) or pasikon(KI) when it is fitted with a wooden scabbard and worn by, or suited to be worn by, an aristocrat.