Selangor - Etymology

Etymology

The origin of the name Selangor is lost in history, although some sources claim the name to have come from the Malay word selangau, 'a large fly', most probably due to the abundance of flies in the marshes along the Selangor River in the state's northwest. A more plausible theory claims the state's name is derived from the term Selang Ur meaning "land of the straits" (selang means "straits" in the Malay language and ur means "town" in Tamil.) Aur (which sounds similar to ur) also means river in Malay. Hence, Selangor may mean 'river straits'. Another possible origin of the name is from combination of the words Sela and Ngor (sela means 'a gap' and ngor means 'bamboo'). It may be possible that the banks of the Selangor River was full of bamboo groves in the distant past. However bamboo do not grow well in the marshy soil of the lower reaches of the river. It is also possible that the word Selangor is an Orang Asli term as some rivers have Orang Asli names, e.g. Damansara river.

Available written records such as the Malay Annals refers to Selangor as Samarlingga during the rule of Seri Paduka Maharaja in Singapore (1301–1400) whereas some Chinese maps from the Ming Dynasty used by the Admiral Zheng He during his voyages of expedition between 1405 to 1433 refers to the Klang River and Selangor Darat (or inland Selangor).