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
Pencak Silat the staff is characteristic of silat Melayu. The Minangkabau formed the dominant sovereignty in West Sumatra and make up the majority of Sumatran pencak silat systems. These styles may be referred to as "silat Minangkabau", "silat Padang" (lit. field silat), or "silek", the local pronunciation of silat. Very few systems in Indonesia have not been influenced by silek, and its techniques form the core of pencak silat throughout Sumatra. It developed as an extension of the original silat Melayu from Riau. Folklore traces this to five masters, namely Ninik Datuak Suri Dirajo from Padang Panjang, Kambiang Utan ("forest goat") from