sekolah menengah atas
Indonesian
Etymology
Compound of sekolah menengah (“high school (US), secondary school (UK)”) + atas (“high”), from
- Calque of English upper + secondary school, or
- Calque of Japanese 高等 (kōtō, “higher”) + 中学校 (chūgakkō, “secondary (middle) school”). The post-war Japanese term is 高等学校 (kōtōgakkō). Doublet of sekolah menengah tinggi.
- Calque of Chinese 高級中學／高级中学 (gāojí zhōngxué, “senior high school”).
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): [səˈkolah mənəˈŋah ˈatas]
- Hyphenation: sê‧ko‧lah, mê‧nê‧ngah, a‧tas
Noun
sekolah menengah atas
- (education) senior high school (US), upper secondary school (UK), abbreviated as SMA.
Usage notes
This term was used from 1950 to 1961 and from 1968 to 1993 for general upper secondary education. Other similar terms are sekolah menengah tinggi (1942-1946), sekolah menengah umum atas (1946-1950), sekolah lanjutan tingkat atas (1963-1967) and sekolah menengah umum (1994-2004). This term has been in use since 2004 up until today.
Synonyms
- sekolah lanjutan tingkat atas (dated)
- sekolah menengah tinggi (dated)
- sekolah menengah umum (dated)
- sekolah menengah umum atas (dated)
Further reading
- “sekolah menengah atas” in Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia, Jakarta: Language Development and Fostering Agency — Ministry of Education, Culture, Research, and Technology of the Republic Indonesia, 2016.