maharlika

• mahadlica, mahad-lica, mahaglica – obsolete, Abecedario orthography
• mahadlika, mahaglika – obsolete
• maharlica – archaic

From a metathesis of Sanskrit महर्द्धिक (maharddhika, “prosperous”). Compare Kapampangan mardika, Maranao maradika', Tausug mahardikaꞌ, Buginese ᨆᨑᨉᨙᨀ (maradeka), Javanese ꦩꦂꦢꦶꦏ (mardika), Balinese ᬫᬃᬤᬾᬓ (mardéka), Indonesian mahardika, and Malay merdeka.

• Hyphenation: ma‧har‧li‧ka
• IPA^(key): /mahaɾliˈka/, [mɐ.hɐɾ.lɪˈxa]
• IPA^(key): /mahaɾliˈkaʔ/, [mɐ.hɐɾ.lɪˈxaʔ]

maharliká or maharlikâ (Baybayin spelling ᜋᜑᜇ᜔ᜎᜒᜃ)

1. (historical) freeman; a member of the feudal warrior class in ancient Tagalog society
2. (obsolete) act of freeing someone

   Synonym: laya

maharliká or maharlikâ (Baybayin spelling ᜋᜑᜇ᜔ᜎᜒᜃ)

1. noble; aristocratic

   Synonyms: dakila, noblesa, kagalang-galang, kamahalan

2. (obsolete) free (from slavery)

   Synonym: malaya

3. (obsolete) plebeian; common

   Synonym: karaniwan

The word maharlika used to refer to the middle class of ancient Tagalog society. During the Kilusang Bagong Lipunan era in the Philippines, former President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. claimed that maharlika referred to the nobility of ancient Tagalog society. Because of this, maharlika evolved into modern use to mean “nobility” but the correct terminology for it was the maginoo class.

• “maharlika”, in Pambansang Diksiyonaryo | Diksiyonaryo.ph, Manila: Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino, 2018
• Potet, Jean-Paul G. (2016) Tagalog Borrowings and Cognates, Lulu Press, →ISBN, page 289
• Fr. Juan José de Noceda; Fr. Pedro de Sanlucar (1860) Vocabulario de la lengua tagala, compuesto por varios religiosos doctos y graves‎ (in Spanish & Tagalog), Manila: Ramirez y Giraudier
• Fr. Pedro de San Buena Ventura (1613), Juan de Silva, editor, Vocabulario de lengua tagala: El romance castellano puesto primero, La Noble Villa de Pila, page 389: “Libre) Maharlica (pp) de eſclauonia”