Khom (, ) is a Thai- and Lao-language term referring to the people and civilization of the ancient Khmer Empire. Its use is recorded as early as the 12th century, though its exact meaningâÂÂwhether it refers to a specific empire, a certain historical period, or the Khmer people in generalâÂÂhas been unclear throughout history. From 20th century onwards the term has been commonly leveraged for anti-Khmer sentiment and historical negationism in Thai nationalist discourse.
The term has been used extensively in 20th-century Thai historiography, partly as a way to disassociate the historical Angkorian civilizationâÂÂof which many archaeological sites are spread throughout present-day ThailandâÂÂfrom the present-day Khmer people who form the majority population of Cambodia, whom many Thais still believe to be an inferior race unrelated to the people of the ancient empire. This discourse was popularized by 20th-century Thai nationalist thinker Luang Wichitwathakan who incorrectly claimed that contemporary Khmers are unrelated to the ethnic group responsible for the Angkorian civilization, coining the term "khom" for this purpose. By repurposing the term "khom" derived from the native Khmer term "Khmer Krom" meaning "lowland Khmer", Wichitwathakan attempted to create a new ethnicity to accentuate a distinct separation between Angkor and Cambodia, despite the ethnic continuity between Angkor's builders and present-day Khmer being well-established.
In Thai, the term khom has its roots in the Dvaravati Old Mon and Nyah Kur term *krÃÂÃÂm meaning "under, below, beneath [prep.]; the under part of (sth.) (especially house) [noun]." The vowel sequence also derived as a variant form: *krÃÂÃÂm *kÃÂrÃÂÃÂm, *kÃÂnrÃÂÃÂm in the Austroasiatic languages then later diversified to other language families as follows: