/words/amok/comments Comments for the word 'Amok' http://www.wordnik.com/ /words/amok/comments Better spelled as <a href="/words/amuk">amuk</a> IMO. <a href="/words/Amok">Amok</a> is a mis-spelling even in Indonesian. There's an official language panel which has made a lot of rulings on standardisation of Bahasa Indonesia since independence. In many cases <a href="/words/o">o</a> lost out to <a href="/words/u">u</a>, as here, or for example <a href="/words/datuk">datuk</a> preferred to <a href="/words/datok">datok</a>. Malaysia retains Dato because there it is a formal title. But Malaysia has 20 million people and Indonesia about 240 million, so in general Indonesian language policies are steamrolling through the region. Now amok is a loanword in English so it has no particular allegiance of faith to its origins. Certainly I have seen amok, but I have also seen amuk often in English texts. I'm not really a prescriptivist so you can make up your own minds. I feel uncomfortable writing amok because it neither looks nor sounds right to me. Sat, 01 Dec 2007 17:07:45 -0800 /words/amok/comments /words/amok/comments Frenzied. Not to be confused with <a href="/words/amuck">amuck</a>. Fri, 08 Dec 2006 14:08:06 -0800 /words/amok/comments