kawakawa

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English[edit]

Etymology[edit]

Borrowed from Maori kawakawa.

Noun[edit]

kawakawa (countable and uncountable, plural kawakawas)

  1. Alternative form of kiwikiwi (“star fern”) (Blechnum fluviatie)
  2. A false albacore, a fish of species Euthynnus affinis.
  3. Piper excelsum (syn. Macropiper excelsum), a shrub endemic to New Zealand.

Translations[edit]

Maori[edit]

Etymology[edit]

From its supposed resemblance to Proto-Polynesian *kawa (“bitter ginger; bitter; kava”), duplicated to indicate similarity (thus, cognate with Hawaiian ʻawa, Tongan kava and Samoan ʻava).[1][2] Further derived from Proto-Oceanic *kawaʀ (“potent root”) metathesis of Proto-Oceanic *wakaʀ (“root”), thus doublet of aka (“root”).

Noun[edit]

kawakawa

  1. kawakawa (Piper excelsum), a shrub endemic to New Zealand.

Related terms[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Tregear, Edward (1891) Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary‎[1], Wellington, New Zealand: Lyon and Blair, page 139
  2. ^ “Kawa, Kawakawa”, in Te Māra Reo‎[2], Benson Family Trust, 2023

Maranao[edit]

Noun[edit]

kawakawa

  1. loose soil
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