The Usual Suspects

Figure 1: source

With the start of a new year, I usually try to kick start some projects that have languished over the previous year. One of those is my Indonesian language skills. Just as in Mathematics where I examine the number associated with my diurnal age, I thought I might be able to examine, on a daily basis, at least one Indonesian word or phrase that I was unfamiliar or uncertain about. 

It's also an opportunity to reconnect with my Indonesian language resources. One of these is my Indonesian-English dictionary (stored as a PDF file on my computer) which I'll make use of right now to investigate a word that cropped up in the local news. The word is "tersangka" and it's derived from "sangka" which is defined as follows:

Word: sangka

English Definition: 

menyangka­: suppose, think, expect. 

tersangka: 1 suspected. 2 expected. 

sangkaan: expectation, supposition, suspicion, idea.

Notes: Combinations/Idioms: 

si tersangka = the defendant in a legal case. 

tidak tersangka (or tak tersangka) = unexpected, unanticipated.

Examples: 

Orang yang besar itu tersangka pelakunya = That big person is suspected of being the perpetrator. 

Sangkaanmu tentang hal itu ternyata tidak benar = Your suspicion about that matter is apparently untrue.

Of course there are numerous online resources. Here are some of the results for tersangka:

• bab.la defines it as suspect or expected and lists "yang tersangka" or "si tersangka" as "the suspect" with the latter being similar to "the defendant in a legal case" mentioned earlier. The example given of its use is:
  
  
  Dan tersangka pembunuhan telah terlacak melalui pakaiannya, pastinya di Inggris, di dalam suatu daerah yang cukup kecil sehingga Anda dapat mengirim anjing pelacak untuk mencari korbannya.
  
  
  And murder suspects have been tracked using their clothing, certainly in the U.K., to within an area that's small enough that you can send in tracker dogs to find the murder victim.

Figure 1 is pretty funny and the sign that the cat holds translates as "suspect in the clawing of a motorcycle seat" or "suspected of clawing a motor cycle seat". Photos like this help cement the meaning of a word into ones memory.