Cengengesan Meaning In Indonesian

Halo semuanya. Pa kabar? Ketemu lagi dengan saya, Iman Prabawa. This time, I want to talk to you about the meaning of the word [cengengesan] in the Indonesian language, and as always, we will watch scenes from movies where the word [cengengesan] is spoken to better understand the meaning of this word and how the Indonesian people use this word in their daily lives.

If you have any questions regarding the Indonesian language, you can ask me directly. You can see how to do that on my About Me page. 

If you are a beginner in the Indonesian language, you can learn step by step with My Lesson Here.

So, without further ado, let's talk about this.

Cengengesan In Indonesian

According to Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia (The Great Indonesian Dictionary), the meaning of the word [cengengesan] is shown in the screenshot below.

The definition of [cengengesan] according to Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia is,

Tertawa (dengan sikap yang kurang sopan) 

If I translate this into English, it means

Laughs (in an impolite manner)

[Cengengesan] basically has the same meaning or is closely related in meanings with [senyum-senyum sendiri], but [cengengesan] has a more negative connotation to it, whereas [senyum-senyum sendiri] has a more positive connotation.

In my previous article, where I explain the meaning of the word [tumben], there is a scene where the phrase [senyum-senyum sendiri] is spoken. You can watch it below, but for more details about this, you can just read my article, Meaning of Tumben In Bahasa.

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I also explain the scene above in the article, so you better read my article if you want to know more about it.

So, [cengengesan] is when you laugh by yourself because suddenly you remember something funny but not at the right moment. Or, when you are laughing at something or at someone to kind of like mock them.

How to Pronounce Cengengesan

Here is how you pronounce the word [cengengesan] in bahasa Indonesia.

Next, let's look at examples where the word [cengengesan] is spoken by Indonesians.

Examples of Cengengesan In Use

In this section, I will gather scenes from movies where the word [cengengesan] is used to better understand how the word [cengengesan] is being used in a real-life situation.

The first scene we are about to watch is taken from a serial TV, Suami-suami Masa Kini, Season 1, Episode 9 (2022). Let's watch the clip below.

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Below is the conversation from the scene above with English translations.

Indri: Kenapa? (What's going on?)

Ical: Ngga papa. (Nothing)

Indri: Kok cengengesan gitu? (What are you smiling about?)

Ical: Eh, i..ini anak-anak lagi ngegosip di grup. (Uhm, the boys are gossiping in the group.)

Indri: Aneh. (Weird).

In this scene, Indri and Ical are husband and wife. But, their relationship is not going well, and then Ical gives the idea to let her wife, Indri, date other men. But then, many men are dating Indri through Tinder, which makes Ical mad.

Ical then disguised himself as someone and opened a Tinder account, and somehow both matched, and then they started to talk and talk, but Indri still hadn't realized that the man she chatted with was her husband because Ical disguised as Widy on that Tinder account.

Actually, Ical still loves her wife so much, and that's why it makes him happy that he can relate to her wife on that account without her realizing that it was him with whom she chatted.

That's why Ical smiled to himself, and then Indri saw him smiling to himself and then asked,

Kok cengengesan gitu? (What are you smiling about?)

As you can see, Ical smiled and did not laugh. That's why I said to you that [cengengesan] sometimes has the same meaning as [senyum-senyum sendiri/smiling to oneself].

Indri uses [cengengesan] in this case to give a negative connotation because she saw her husband smiling without any reason. At that moment, she has a relationship problem with her husband, Ical. So, that's why she uses [cengengesan] instead of [senyum-senyum sendiri].

But in this case, actually, you can replace [cengengesan] with [senyum-senyum sendiri]. If you want to bring someone down a bit with your words, then the choice of the word [cengengesan] is much more appropriate than [senyum-senyum sendiri].

So, because the conversation is so short, I don't think we will have a vocabulary lesson this time. 

     Read also: Ngaco In Indonesian

Thank you so much for reading this article, and if I find another scene where the word [cengengesan] is used, Insha Allah, I will update this article again.

Kalau begitu, sampai nanti. I'll talk to you soon and bubye now.