Pencak Silat word "pancha" meaning five, or from the Chinese term "pencha" or "pungcha" which implies parrying or deflecting, and striking or pressing. Other terms may be used in particular dialects such as "silek", "penca", "mancak", "maen po" or "main-po". Dutch East Indian newspapers of the colonial era recorded the terms for martial arts under Dutch spellings. These include "silat", "pencak" (spelled in Dutch as "pentjak"), "penca" ("pentjah"), "mancak" ("mentjak"), "manca" ("mentjah"), and "pukulan" ("poekoelan"). In 1881 a magazine calls mancak a Batak fencing game "with long swords, daggers or wood ("mentjah")" These papers described mancak as Malayan ("Maleidsche") suggesting that the
Silat at least the fifteenth century in Malacca. The preset forms of silambam are known as "silatguvarisai". The most popular theory in Malaysia is that it derives from "sekilat" meaning "as (fast as) lightning." Other theories derive silat from the Sanskrit "sīla" meaning morality or principle, or the Southern Chinese "saula" which means to push or perform with the hands. The Sanskrit theory is particularly popular in Thailand, as "sila" is an alternate form of the word silat in that country. Other similar-sounding words have been proposed, but are generally not considered by etymologists. One example is "si elat" which means