sabuk

Sabuk is a common noun in Indonesian and Malay that means belt or girdle. It refers to a flexible band used to secure, support, or decorate items or clothing. The term also extends to metaphorical belts, such as geographic or strategic belts in planning and development.

In clothing, sabuk describes a belt worn at the waist for practical or decorative purposes. In safety contexts, sabuk pengaman denotes a seat belt or other restraint used to secure a person in a vehicle or at height, reducing the risk of injury in accidents.

In astronomy, sabuk asteroid is the Indonesian term for the asteroid belt, the region between Mars and Jupiter where many rocky bodies orbit the Sun. The term appears in textbooks and media in Indonesia when discussing planetary science and space exploration.

Urban planning and policy use sabuk in compound forms. Sabuk hijau, or green belt, describes a ring of open land around a city to curb sprawl and protect agricultural or ecological values. In international discourse, the Indonesian phrase Inisiatif Sabuk dan Jalan translates Belt and Road Initiative, referring to infrastructure and economic corridors.

Origin and usage: sabuk derives from Malay and Indonesian languages and is used widely across Southeast Asia. It remains a generic noun and forms the basis for many compounds in everyday language and technical terms, including clothing, safety, geography, and international development.