Translate This: extra virgin olive oil

A translator had posed a question, requesting the meaning of a term in Terminology section in Proz.com (a website flooded by freelance translators the world over, hoping to syphon some dollars or euros from some rich client’s bank account but always end up having to service peanut-paying, stingier than ‘tangkai jering’ kind of clients. They normally camouflage it with ‘community service’ card). The translator had asked for the meaning of ‘extra virgin olive oil’.

I know… you like that word too (I don’t have to say it again here).

So, without hesitation, you’d say, “Hey, that’s easy, it's minyak zaitun lebih dara”. Sure, sure, that’s because you brain is so pre-occupied with that word. For men, they’d wish they could marry one, once again. For women, they’d wish they became one, once again. But tell me please, from your ‘bluey’ mind, how can a virgin be more virgin? Sorry, I digress.

Here is what it is in Malay: minyak zaitun paling murni

Now, doesn’t that sound more like it, beautiful and coherent like the Malay language itself? I can’t help but feeling naughty when the other word is used. Don’t tell me you didn’t, you perv!

Let us thank a very experienced (and expensive) English-Malay translator who goes by the name Mek Yam. Don’t be misled by her name. She currently resides in New York (waaahh…!) and charges your arm for a page of translation. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any worthwhile link to her official website (if she has it which I think she should’ve). But she has an FB page. Go check from your respective FB. Mek Yam is raving crazy in translation forum all over and she has a chilli-flavoured mouth too, at least in those fora, I noticed. Read her explanation below. I cut 'n' paste from her answer to the question. 

1) extra virgin olive oil = oil that is produced naturally, meaning not made from any sort of chemical treatments. Virgin oil is an indication that the oil is not refined, that they are of a higher quality and retain their natural flavor.

2) Please see below the definitions of virgin in Malay from Dewan Eja Pro:

~ virgin [adj]: 1. pure and chaste, dara, perawan; 2. befitting a virgin, spt seorang /dara, perawan/: ~ modesty, kesopanan spt seorang dara; 3. pure and untouched, murni: the ~ snow, salji murni; 4. (of soil) unused, asal; 5. (of forest) in the natural state, dara; 6. (of clay) not fired, asal; 7. (of metal) made from ore by smelting, murni; 8. (of wool) not chemically processed, murni

That brings me to these questions: Doesn’t it apply to our own ‘minyak kelapa dara’ too? Shouldn’t we say ‘minyak kelapa murni’ instead of the former? What about ‘ayam dara’?

If it is so, and if I possess all the powers that behold, I will change all those buntings and signboards made by producers of those ‘virgin coconut oil’ and save for ‘ayam dara’ sellers (because I'm still researching it). But I don’t have it. And those who have it (ahem!) seem powerless and out-of-focus.

Can we somehow limit the use of that word to human being only? (As from the above explanation by Dewan Eja Pro).

As an extra, here is a related term which they have done a little improvisation to it. Andartu used to be an acronym to ‘anak dara tua’, or spinster in English. They thought it was crude. So they, taking beautiful and coherent Malay into consideration, coined in ‘anak dara lanjut usia’ and came up with an acronym of ‘andalusia’. Hmmm… I’d say I get more confused. Isn't that a region somewhere? Yes, it's in Spain. M. Nasir will be very angry.

And, I do not know who ‘they’ are.