[Bislama, either from Fijian vatu, stone, or from a kindred word in a Malayo-Polynesian language of Vanuatu (perhaps chosen as the name for the currency because of its phonetic similarity to Vanuatu), from Proto-Malayo-Polynesian *batu, stone, from Proto-Austronesian; akin to Tsou (Austronesian language of Taiwain), fatu.]