bunga api

Indonesian

Indonesian Wikipedia has an article on:

bunga api

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Etymology

Compound of bunga (“flower”) +‎ api (“fire”), probably from

• calque from Chinese 火花 (huǒhuā, “spark”, literally “fire + flower”) or
• calque from Japanese 火花(ひばな) (hibana, “spark”, literally “fire + flower”).

Noun

bunga api

1. spark

   Synonyms: kilatan api, lelatu, percik api

Usage notes

The word is part of false friends between Standard Malay and Indonesian due to shared etymology. The Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore usage can be seen in Malay bunga api.

Related terms

• kembang api

Further reading

• “bunga api”, 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