The Filipino language has come a long way since it was first instituted as our national language in 1937.

But even before Quezon made his historic declaration, our founding fathers were already brimming with ideas on how to establish our national language. One of them was the late Eusebio T. Daluz who compiled a fascinating Filipino dictionary in 1915 for the Akademya ng Wikang Pilipino (Academy of the Filipino Language).

Also Read: 15 Filipino Words You Didn’t Know Exist

Although most of the words he invented never hit the mainstream, it would be nice to see how the Filipino vocabulary might have become if we have “gamlang” as the word for industry, “kadám” for senate, or “kadamnin” for senator.

But you don’t have to look back in history just to discover interesting and lesser-known words. In fact, there are Filipino terms that may sound unfamiliar to most of us but only because they have been obscured by their English counterparts. Here are just 7 of them:

Try This: FilipiKnow’s Ultimate Tagalog-English Dictionary

Kahulugan: And lalagukan o tatagukan ay isang katangiang makikita sa leeg ng tao. Nabubuo ang bukol o umbok sa pamamagitan ng anggulo ng kartilahiyong pangtayroyd na nakapalibot sa larynx o “kahon ng tinig.”

 Kahulugan:Ang bakalaw o kalaryas ay isang pangkaraniwang katawagan sa mga isdang nasa saring Gadus, na nabibilang sa pamilyang Gadidae, at ginagamit din na karaniwang pangalan para sa iba’t iba pang uri ng mga isda.

Also Read: 16 Colors And Their Beautiful Names In The Philippine Language

Kahulugan: Ang panday-kaban ay isang taong may kakayahang gumawa o kumumpuni ng mga kandado.

Kahulugan: Ang ostrits, abestrus, o Struthio camelus ay isang ibong hindi nakakalipad na katutubo ng Aprika. Ito lamang ang nabubuhay na uri ng kanyang mag-anak o pamilyang Struthionidae, at ng saring Struthio.

Kahulugan: Ang tsarera ay isang uri ng lalagyan kung saan iniimbak ang napakuluang tsaa.

Kahulugan: Ang tariktik ay isang uri ng ibon sa pamilyang Bucerotidae, kung saan napapailalim ang mga kalaw. Ang tariktik ay ang pinakamaliit na miyembro ng pamilya ng mga kalaw sa Pilipinas.

 Also Read: 30 Filipino Words With No English Equivalent

References

Lim, E. 2008. Lim Filipino-English English-Filipino Dictionary. [S.l.]: Lulu.com.

Panganiban, J. V. 1994. Concise English-Tagalog Dictionary. Rutland: Tuttle.