M is here a Suāhili prefix. See Bleek's Comp. Grammar, 189.
This word takes a ludicrous form in Dampier: "All the Indians who spake Malayan ... lookt on those Meangians as a kind of Barbarians; and upon any occasion of dislike, would call them Bobby, that is Hogs."—i. 515.
["Mr Burke's method of pronouncing it.">[
At Lord Wellesley's table, Major Malcolm mentioned as a notable fact that he and three of his brothers had once met together in India. "Impossible, Malcolm, quite impossible!" said the Governor-General. Malcolm persisted. "No, no," said Lord Wellesley, "if four Malcolms had met, we should have heard the noise all over India!"
See Chinese Recorder, 1876, vii. 324, and Kovalefski's Mongol Dict. No. 1058.