In Bahasa Melayu, the official language of Malaysia, the word "orang" means "man" or "human." So the indigenous peoples of Malaysia, who have co-existed on the Malaysian peninsula with the Malays for many centuries, are called the "Orang Asli," which means the "original people."

Or to give another example, I might be described as an "orang putih." A white man.

Of course, the word "orang" made it into the English langauge as part of "orangutan." That's two Malay words mashed together. In Malay, "orang utan" means simply the "man of the forest" or the "people of the forest."

The Malays saw orangutans and identified them as a variety of human being. And maybe they weren't so far off.