Orient Middle East or the Far East. The term Oriental is often used to describe objects from the Orient. However, given its Eurocentric connotations and shifting, inaccurate definition through the ages, it is generally considered offensive as a label for people from Asia. The term "Orient" derives from the Latin word "oriens" meaning "east" (lit. "rising" < "orior" " rise"). The use of the word for "rising" to refer to the east (where the sun rises) has analogs from many languages: compare the terms "Levant" (< French "levant" "rising"), "Vostok" (< Russian "voskhod" "sunrise"), "Anatolia" (< Greek "anatole"), "mizrahi" in Hebrew
Maritime Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia Maritime Southeast Asia is the maritime region of Southeast Asia as opposed to mainland Southeast Asia and comprises what is now Malaysia, Brunei, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, and Timor Leste. The local Malayo-Polynesian name for the region is Nusantara. Maritime Southeast Asia is sometimes also referred to as "island Southeast Asia" or "insular Southeast Asia". The 16th-century term East Indies, and the later 19th-century term Malay Archipelago refers to a largely similar area. This main demographic difference that sets Maritime Southeast Asia apart from Indochina is that its population predominantly belongs to the Austronesian (Malayo-Polynesian, Melanesian and Micronesian)