Medan Etymology

According to the diary of a Portuguese merchant in the early 16th century, the name of Medan was actually derived from tamil word Maidhan, also known as Maidhāṉam (Tamil: மைதானம்), that means Ground, adopted from Malay language. One of the Karo-Indonesia dictionaries written by Darwin Prinst SH published in 2002 stated that Medan could also be defined as "recover" or "be better".