Tag: hawaii words

Aa: rough, crumbling lava.
Ae: yes.
Ahupuaa: land division usually extending from the mountains to the sea.
Akamai: smart, clever.
Akua: god, goddess, spirit, ghost, devil, image, idol, corpse; divine, supernatural, godly.
Ala: a road, path, or trail.
Alii: a Hawaiian chief, Hawaiian royalty.
Aloha: love, affection, kindness. Also means both greetings and farewell.
Aole: no.
Aumakua: family or personal gods, deified ancestors who might assume the shape of, for example, a shark, owl, dog, hawk, plant, or cloud.
Hale: a house.
Haole: white person. Formerly any foreigner.
Hapa: a part, sometimes a half.
Hauoli: to rejoice. Hauoli Makahiki Hou: Happy New Year.
Heiau: an ancient Hawaiian temple.
Hele: to go, come, walk.
Holo: to run.
Hookipa: hospitality.
Huhu: angry.
Hui: a group, club, or assembly.
Hula: the dance of Hawaii.
Imu: underground oven.
Ipo: sweetheart.
Ipu: the bottle gourd used as a receptacle, dance rattle and drum.
Iwi: bone.
Ka: the definite article.
Kahuna: a priest, doctor, or other trained person of old Hawaii, endowed with special professional skills that often included the gift of prophecy or other supernatural powers.
Kai: the sea, saltwater.
Kalo: the taro plant from whose root poi is made.
Kamaaina: literally, a child of the soil, it refers to people who were born in the Islands or have lived in Hawaii for a long time.
Kanaka: originally a man or humanity in general, it is now used to denote a male Hawaiian or part-Hawaiian.
Kane: a man, a husband.
Kapa: also called tapa, a cloth made of beaten bark.
Kapu: taboo, keep out, prohibited, sacred.
Kapuna: grandparent, ancestor, elder.
Keiki: a child.
Kokua: help.
Kuleana: responsibility, concern, property.
Lanai: a porch, balcony or deck.
Lani: heaven, the sky.
Lauhala: the leaf of the hala or pandanus tree, widely used in Hawaiian handcrafts.
Lei: a garland of flowers.
Lokahi: unity, agreement, harmony.
Luau: Hawaiian feast. In the past the word for feast was paina.
Mahalo: thank you. Mahalo nui loa: thank you very much.
Makai: toward the sea.
Malihini: a newcomer to the Islands.
Mana: the spiritual power that the Hawaiians believed to inhabit all things and creatures.
Mauka: toward the mountains.
Mauna: mountain.
Mele: chant, song, anthem. Merry Christmas: Mele Kalikimaka.
Menehune: a legendary race of little people who worked at night building fish ponds, roads and temples.
Moana: the ocean.
Muumuu: a loose gown or dress.
Nani: beautiful.
Nui: big.
Oli: a chant that was not danced to.
Ono: delicious
Pahoehoe: smooth lava.
Pahu: drum.
Pali: a cliff, precipice.
Paniolo: a Hawaiian cowboy.
Pau: finished, done.
Puka: a hole.
Pupu: hors d’oeuvres
Wahine: a female, a woman, a wife.
Wai: fresh water, as opposed to saltwater, which is kai.
Wikiwiki: to hurry, hurry up.