"pertaining to Madagascar," the large island off the southeast coast of Africa, 1835, apparently an alteration of Madagascar (compare French Malgache).
Entries linking to malagasy
Madagascar
large island lying to the east of and near Africa, from Mogadishu, the name of the city in Somalia, due to an error by Marco Polo in reading Arabic, whereby he thought the name was that of the island. There is no indigenous name for the whole island. Related: Madagascan; Madagascarian; Madagascarene.