sanglay

sanglay is the alternative form of Sangley.

Meaning of Sangley

Sangley (plural Sangleys or Sangleyes)

(Philippines, historical) A person of pure ethnic Chinese ancestry (especially during the Spanish colonial period in the Philippines)
- There were also in this city certain Sangleyes who had settled down there to sell their merchandise, so that they remained there from one year to another.1905, United States Bureau of the Census, Census of the Philippine Islands, 1903, page 483

Sanglay (plural Sanglays or Sanglayes)

(alternative) Alternative form of Sangley.
- In 1639, on pretence of a concerted insurrection, twenty-three thousand Sanglayes (descendants of Chinese and natives) were put to the sword.1833, Alick Osborne, Notes on the Present State and Prospects of Society in New South Wales
- All these constituents - Christians or pagans, Tagals, Vicols, Chinese and Sanglays, Whites and Creoles, the subjugated and the untamed -- form a nation of 3 1/2 million men, including the neighboring islands.1892, Onésime Reclus, A Bird's-eye View of the World, page 869

What is sanglay the alternative form of?: Sanglay is the alternative form of Sangley.
What part of speech is sanglay?: Sanglay is a noun.
What is the plural of sanglay?: The plural of sanglay is sanglays.

Adapted from Wiktionary: sanglay (page history and authors); Sanglay (page history and authors); Sangley (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Cite this entry: “sanglay.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sanglay. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.