GLOSSARY
*A note on the glossary. For traditional Hawaiian definitions, I relied on Ulukau. While most Hawaiian words have multiple meanings, for the purposes here I have listed only the definitions that align with how they are used within HULA. For pidgin (indicated), words and expressions definitions may vary, as languages evolve over time. As there is no formal Hawaiian pidgin dictionary, I have tried to list here only how they are used within HULA, and how these words and expressions were used in the time the story is set.
ʻae: Yes; to say yes, consent, conform, grant, agree, approve, let, confirm, admit, permit, allow, accept, yield; approval, admission, permission.
ʻāina: Land, earth
Aiyah: (pidgin) exclamation used to express dismay, exasperation, or surprise.
Akamai: Smart, clever, expert; smartness, skill, wit.
Akua: God, goddess, spirit, ghost, devil, image, idol, corpse; divine, supernatural, godly. Akua might mate with humans and give birth to normal humans, moʻo, or kupua
Aloha ʻoe: ("Farewell to Thee") is a Hawaiian folk song written circa 1878 by Queen Liliʻuokalani. It is her most famous song and is a common cultural symbol.
ʻamaʻama: Mullet (Mugil cephalus), a very choice indigenous fish.
ʻaʻole pilikia: No trouble, no problem. Can also mean you’re welcome.
ʻauana: To wander, drift, ramble, go from place to place; hula ʻauana: Hula, as it evolved under Western influence in the 19th and 20th centuries
ʻaumakua: Family or personal gods, deified ancestors who might assume the shape of sharks (all islands except Kauaʻi), owls (as at Mānoa, O'ahu and Kaʻū and Puna, Hawaiʻi), hawks (Hawaiʻi), ʻelepaio, ʻiwi, mudhens, octopuses, eels, mice, rats, dogs, caterpillars, rocks, cowries, clouds, or plants. A symbiotic relationship existed; mortals did not harm or eat ʻaumākua (they fed sharks), and ʻaumākua warned and reprimanded mortals in dreams, visions, and calls
Auwe: To cry, weep, lament, mourn; a cry, lamentation, weeping; to salute
Bocha: (pidgin) originally derived from the Japanese word for splash (bocha bocha), it is used to describe bathing
Boom kanani: (pidgin) usually after a come upon fortune or success, one might use in a situation when extremely happy or ecstatic
Bulai: (pidgin) liar; lies
Bumbai pau: (pidgin) otherwise; or else; later; later on
Buss-up: (pidgin) messed up; drunk; wasted; broken; damaged
Chiisai chimpo: (pidgin) Japanese slang term used to describe the size (or lack thereof) of a male's genitalia
Cockaroached: (pidgin): To steal something
E kala mai: Please excuse me, excuse me
Ehu: Reddish tinge in hair, of Polynesians and not of Caucasians; one with ʻehu hair; reddish-brown complexion said to be characteristic of some ʻehu people; ruddy
Garenz: (pidgin) no doubt; a guarantee; a sure thing
Hakakā: To fight, quarrel; fight, duel, strife. Hakakā ʻōlelo, dispute, argument
Hala: The pandanus or screw pine (Pandanus odoratissimus), native from southern Asia east to Hawaiʻi, growing at low altitudes, both cultivated and wild. It is a tree with many branches, which are tipped with spiral tufts of long narrow, spine-edged leaves; its base is supported by a clump of slanting aerial roots. The pineapple-shaped fruits are borne on female trees whereas the spikes of fragrant, pollenbearing flowers are borne separately on male trees. The tree is called pū hala. The hala lei is much liked today but formerly was not worn on important ventures because hala also means failure. For the same reason some persons will not compose songs about hala.
Halau: Long house, as for canoes or hula instruction; meeting house
Hale: House, building, institution, lodge, station, hall; to have a house
Hana hou: To do again, repeat, renew, repair, mend; encore
Hanabata: (pidgin) mucus, boogers
Hānai: Foster child, adopted child; foster, adopted. Keiki hānai, foster child.
Hapai: Pregnant; to conceive
Hau: Hau cordage, called `ili hau, provided tying material used daily. The cordage is made by cutting off stems and younger smooth branches, making a slit lengthwise and removing the bark with the hands. The bark strips are then soaked. When the outer bark is slipped off, remaining are cream-colored smooth fibers for braiding and twisting into cordage
Haumāna: Student, pupil, apprentice, recruit, disciple
Haupia: Pudding formerly made of arrowroot (pia) and coconut cream, now usually made with cornstarch
He inoa no hilo: Name chant in honor of Hilo
Heʻe: Octopus (Polypus sp.), commonly known as squid. Heʻe mahola, octopus given for sickness caused by sorcery, as octopus (heʻe) would cause the sickness to flee (heʻe) or spread out (mahola)
Heiau: Pre-Christian place of worship, shrine; some heiau were elaborately constructed stone platforms, others simple earth terraces
Hiapo: First-born child; first born, oldest
High maka maka: pidgin for stuck up or pretentious
Hoʻokupu: ceremonial presentation of gifts formerly offered as tribute to a chief
Hoʻoponopono: literal meaning is To correct. is a traditional Hawaiian practice of reconciliation and forgiveness
Holokū: A loose, seamed dress with a yoke and usually with a train, patterned after the Mother Hubbards of the missionaries
Honu: General name for turtle and tortoise
Honua: Land, earth, world; background, as of quilt designs; basic, at the foundation, fundamental
Howzit: (pidgin) how are you
Huakaʻi po: In Hawaiian mythology, Nightmarchers are the deadly ghosts of ancient Hawaiian warriors
Hukilau: a type of group fishing technique
Hula kiʻi: Dance of the images in which the dancers postured stiffly like images
Huli maka flip: (pidgin) To flip or turn over; fall down
Hune kai: Sea spray, sea foam
ʻike: To see, know, feel, greet, recognize, perceive, experience, be aware, understand; to receive revelations from the gods; knowledge, awareness, understanding, recognition, comprehension and hence learning; sense, as of hearing or sight; sensory, perceptive, vision
I mua: to move toward, forward
ʻio: Hawaiian hawk, an endemic and endangered hawk with dark and light color phases, confined to forests on the island of Hawaiʻi, where it is regarded by some as an ʻaumakua
Ipu heke: Gourd drum with a top section
Kahiko: Old, ancient, antique, primitive, long ago, beforehand
Kai: Sea, sea water; area near the sea, seaside, lowlands; tide, current in the sea; insipid, brackish
Kaka: (pidgin) poop
Kala mai: excuse me
Kālaʻau: Stick dancing; to stick dance
Kalohe: Mischievous, naughty, unethical or unprincipled in any way, illegal, fraudulent, destructive; rascal, mischief-maker, scamp, rogue, prankster, comic, roughhouse, crook, vandal, lecher; to act in this fashion, misbehave, cheat, transgress, tamper; to violate, as a taboo
Kamapuaʻa: A pig demigod
Kanaka: Human being, man, person, individual, party, mankind, population; subject, as of a chief; laborer, Hawaiian; private individual or party, as distinguished from the government
Kanikapila: a style of Hawaiian music produced in an impromptu jam session, most commonly taking place at a beach, or family gathering
Kanilehua: Name of a mist like rain famous at Hilo
Kapu: Taboo, prohibition; special privilege or exemption from ordinary taboo; sacredness; prohibited, forbidden; sacred, holy, consecrated; no trespassing, keep out
Kaput: (pidgin) done, over
Kau kau: (pidgin) Food, meal, to eat
Ke akua: breath of life, thanks be to God, the love of God
Keiki: Child, offspring, descendant, progeny
Koa: The largest of native forest trees, with light-gray bark, crescent-shaped leaves, and white flowers in small, round heads. A legume with fine, red wood, a valuable lumber tree, formerly used for canoes, surfboards, calabashes, now for furniture and ukuleles. A small koa was sometimes added to the hula altar to Laka, goddess of the hula, to make the dancer fearless
Kōkua: Help, aid, assistance, relief, assistant, associate, deputy
Kuahu: altar
Kuleana: Right, privilege, concern, responsibility, title, business, property, estate, portion, jurisdiction, authority, liability, interest, claim, ownership, tenure, affair, province; reason, cause, function, justification; small piece of property, as within an ahupuaʻa; blood relative through whom a relationship to less close relatives is traced, as to in-laws
Kumu: hula teacher
Kupeʻe: Bracelet, anklet; fetters, manacles, handcuffs; to put or tie on bracelets, anklets, fetters; to hogtie
Kūpuna: plural of kupuna (Grandparent, ancestor, relative or close friend of the grandparent's generation, grandaunt, granduncle)
Lā: Sun, sun heat; sunny, solar
Lauhala: leaf of the hala tree
Laulau: Wrapping, wrapped package; packages of ti leaves or banana leaves containing pork, beef, salted fish, or taro tops, baked in the ground oven, steamed or broiled; any cloth, net, or leaves used as a wrapper or carrier; to wrap or carry in such bundle
Lei poʻo: Lei worn on the head
Lickens: (pidgin) spanking
Lehua: The flower of the ʻōhiʻa tree, also the tree itself. The lehua is the flower of the island of Hawaiʻi, as designated in 1923 by the Territorial legislature; it is famous in song and tale.
Limu: A general name for all kinds of plants living under water, both fresh and salt, also algae growing in any damp place in the air, as on the ground, on rocks, and on other plants; also mosses, liverworts, lichens
Loʻi: Irrigated terrace, especially for taro, but also for rice; paddy
Loko iʻa: Hawaiian fishpond
Loko kuapā: fishpond with a rock wall
Lua: Toilet, outhouse, bathroom
Luau: Hawaiian feast, named for the taro tops always served at one; this is not an ancient name, but goes back at least to 1856, when so used by the Pacific Commercial Advertiser; formerly a feast was pāʻina or ʻahaʻaina
Maʻi: menstruation
Maikaʻi: Good, fine, all right, well
Makai: ocean
Makani: Wind, breeze; gas in the stomach, flatulent wind; windy; to blow
Malama: To take care of, tend, attend, care for, preserve, protect, beware, save, maintain; to keep or observe, as a taboo; to conduct, as a service; to serve, honor, as God; care, preservation, support, fidelity, loyalty; custodian, caretaker, keeper
Mana: Supernatural or divine power, mana, miraculous power; a powerful nation, authority; to give mana to, to make powerful; to have mana, power, authority; authorization, privilege; miraculous, divinely powerful, spiritual; possessed of mana, power
Manaʻo: Thought, idea, belief, opinion, theory, thesis, intention, meaning, suggestion, mind
Manini: (pidgin) small, stingy
Mauka: inland
Menehune: Legendary race of small people who worked at night, building fish ponds, roads, temples
Moe moe: (pidgin) sleep
Moʻo: Lizard, reptile of any kind, dragon, serpent; water spirit
Moʻokʻūauhau: genealogy
Moʻolelo: Story, tale, myth, history, tradition, literature, legend, journal, log, yarn, fable, essay, chronicle, record, article; minutes, as of a meeting
Moʻopuna: Grandchild; great-niece or -nephew; relatives two generations later, whether blood or adopted; descendant; posterity
Muʻumuʻu: a loose gown
Naʻau: Intestines, bowels, guts; mind, heart, affections; of the heart or mind; mood, temper, feelings
Nene: Hawaiian goose protected and rare on Maui and in Hawaiʻi uplands
Ohana: Family, relative, kin group; related
Ohana (pidgin, in context of real estate): a second dwelling unit permitted to be built as a separate or attached building site
ʻohia: see Lehua
ʻōkole: buttocks
Oli: Chant that was not danced to, especially with prolonged phrases chanted in one breath, often with a trill (ʻiʻi) at the end of each phrase; to chant thus
Opai: shrimp
ʻopihi: limpet
Opu: belly, stomach, abdomen
Pahoehoe: Smooth, unbroken type of lava, contrasting with ʻaʻā; to turn into pāhoehoe lava
Pahu: drum
Pakalolo: (pidgin) marijuana
Palapalai: a fern
Papa: Papahānaumoku, goddess and Earth Mother
Pareo: wraparound skirt
Pau: Finished, ended, through, terminated, completed, over, all done
Paʻu: hula skirt
Piko: Navel, navel string, umbilical cord
Pilau: Rot, stench, rottenness; to stink; putrid, spoiled, rotten, foul, decomposed
Pilikia: Trouble of any kind, great or small; problem, nuisance, bother, distress, adversity, affliction, accident, difficulty, inconvenience, perturbation, tragedy, lack; in trouble, troubled, bothered
Pōhaku: rock, stone
Poi: the Hawaiian staff of life, made from cooked taro corms, or rarely breadfruit, pounded and thinned with water
Pono: Goodness, uprightness, morality, moral qualities, correct or proper procedure, excellence, well-being, prosperity, welfare, benefit, behalf, equity, sake, true condition or nature, duty; moral, fitting, proper, righteous, right, upright, just, virtuous, fair, beneficial, successful, in perfect order, accurate, correct, eased, relieved; should, ought, must, necessary
Popo: (pidgin) police
Pueo: Hawaiian short-eared owl
Puʻili: Bamboo rattles, as used for dancing
Puka: Hole, door, entrance, gate, slit, vent, opening, issue
Pule: Prayer, magic spell, incantation, blessing, grace, church service, church; to pray, worship, say grace, ask a blessing, cast a spell
Taro: a tropical herbaceous plant native to southeast Asia and part of the Araceae family, along with the malanga and eddo roots. Featuring elephant ear-shaped leaves, the taro plant produces edible corms, a food staple in the Pacific Islands and the Caribbean
Ti: a tropical broadleaf evergreen plant with colorful palm-like leaves
Ting: (pidgin) thing
Tutu: grandma
Ua maopopo iāʻoe: Do you understand?
Ua mau ke ea o ka ʻāina i ka pono: is a Hawaiian phrase, spoken by Kamehameha III, and adopted in 1959 as the state motto.[1] It is most commonly translated as "the life of the land is perpetuated in righteousness
Ukulele: Developed in the 1880s, the ukulele is based on several small, guitar-like instruments of Portuguese origin, the machete, cavaquinho, timple, and rajão, introduced to the Hawaiian Islands by Portuguese immigrants from Madeira, the Azores and Cape Verde
ʻūliʻūli: A gourd rattle, containing seeds with colored feathers at the top, used for the hula ʻulīʻulī
Ulu: The breadfruit (Artocarpus altilis), a tree perhaps originating in Malaysia and distributed through tropical Asia and Polynesia. It belongs to the fig family, and is grown for its edible fruits, sometimes for ornament. The leaves are large, oblong, more or less lobed; fruits are round or oblong, weighing up to 4.5 kilos, when cooked tasting something like sweet potatoes.
Wakea: god of light and the heavens