adat

Definition

Traditional custom or law, in Islamic parts of Southeast Asia.

Etymology

Borrowed from Malay adat, from Classical Persian عادت ('ādat), from Arabic عَادَة (ʕāda, “habit, custom”), from the verb عَوْدَ (ʕawda, “to appertain, to be proper”).

Example Sentences

• "[T]he early-nineteenth-century Padri movement […] was an accelerated programme of religious renewal in West Sumatra, an attempt to cleanse Islam of adat or local customary law and practices."