Pupule

crazy, insane, reckless, wild

This is a small kid kine word. And although us kids were sometimes referred to as being pupule we knew that this was the word that referred to those who were REALLY crazy (imagine your pointer fingers going in circles pointing to each ear...that kine crazy). I mean someone who has really lost it ("it" probably referring to their brains or senses).

Pupule also brings to mind a song made famous years ago:

Princess Pupule get plenty papaya,

She love to give 'em away

And all of the people they say,

"Omiya Omya, you really should trya

Little piece of the Princess Pupule's papaya..."

Remember that one? That was one good song. Didn't make much sense but not everything should, right? It was just super catchy.

Now there's a new song out for the younger generation that has pupule in it:

I've been watching you from across the way, girl

Moving that sexy body, girl

And I must say that you are driving me pupule

ʻIke anei ʻoe i kekahi kanaka pupule? - Do you know any crazy people?

Pupule kēlā wahine ma ka hale kūʻai - That woman in the store is CRAZY.

All in good fun, again. and the pupule legacy lives on in song.

Nuha

Sulky, sullen, peeved, peevish, stubborn; to sulk, balk.

If you grew up in Hawaiʻi, or Hawaiian style, surely you remember the word nuha. I can just hear my dad calling me "Nuha-lani".  Whenever you got all mad because someone did something to you, usually a sibling or older cousin, and no adult would "back you up" you got all nuha.  Funny thing is when I read the definition for nuha in the dictionary, nowhere did it say "salty."  Is that just a made up word or is that also a translation for nuha?  Is that a "real" word synonymous with sulky?  Oftentimes I wonder if words like "salty" for nuha or one hand "spam" instead of span when playing marbles are words just used here in the islands by the local families.  People just hearing the words wrong.  Not attuned to fine tuning, so to speak.  I mean salty sounds like sulky, but I NEVER heard the word sulky small kid time.  It was always either, "What, you nuha?" or "She stay all salty."  And they weren't referring to taste. Just a point to ponder during those nuha times.

Nuha ʻo ia. - She's "salty."

Mai hoʻonuha 'oe iā ia. - Don't make him get sulky.

Hōʻole

to deny, refuse, reject, veto, contradict, prohibit, protest, nullify, disclaim, renounce, repudiate; refusal, denial, negative.

Whenever something is refused or rejected we say (and by we I mean me) hōʻole ʻia, with the ʻi stretched out for emphasis (more like 'iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiaaaa) with a little tilt in the head. Usually it's something that I actually wanted to be rejected or refused, like when my kids ask their dad if they can do something that they knew I would not let them do but they thought dad would (don't you just hate it when they do that?). And then "dad" sees the look on my face and just KNOWS to refuse their request. Then I hum the little ditty to myself...."hōʻole ʻia" (please imagine that ʻia being stretched oooouuuutttt). REJECTED!

You may have recognized ʻole in there. same ʻole as you find in ʻaʻole and ʻaʻohe, meaning no or none. By putting the hō in front of it (remember hoʻo-? it's a causative) it literally means to cause no-ness. to deny! When you stick ʻia after that (ʻia makes words passive for you English language buffs) it makes it passive. Kind of like "denied". I have visions of a big rubber stamp marked: HŌ'OLE ʻIA on all my tax papers and loan requests.

hōʻole 'ia - denied
hōʻole loa - to deny or refuse absolutely
hōʻole Akua - to deny the existence of God; atheist
hōʻole wai ʻona - prohibition of intoxicants (literally - to prohibit intoxicating liquids)
Mai hōʻole i ka makua - don't refuse the parent

Hikina

east; coming

To the Hawaiians, the direction of hikina is very significant. The son rises in the hikina and the sun signifies enlightenment. When the rays of the sun (kukuna o ka lā) touch our ʻāina they brings forth life. Day. When it sets in the west or komohana it signifies death. Darkness. When the first child was born of gods here in Hawaiʻi, he was very weak and didn't live long. He was buried on the hikina side of their dwelling and from this spot, where the sun first shows off its immense beauty in the early morning, grew the first kalo, or taro plant, Hāloanakalaukapalili. Their next child, also named Hāloa, was the progenitor of the Hawaiian race. The first Hawaiian. Brother to the kalo.

The easternmost point of the state of Hawaiʻi is located on the Big Island at Kumukahi. "Aia i Kumukahi ka lā e puka maila." There at Kumukahi the sun appears. This ʻāina is sacred because it is from here that Hawaiians first see the sun appear to warm us, to bring forth life, to enlighten us. We hear of children having the word hikina in their name but never hear the word komohana or west in names. Hikina also means the coming, advent. "Mai ka hikina a ka la i Kumukahi a i ka welona i Lehua" - from the arrival of the sun in Kumukahi to its setting in Lehua.

Aia ʻo  Kumukahi ma ka ʻaoʻao hikina o Hawaiʻi mokupuni - Kumukahi is on the east side of Hawaiʻi Island.

Please feel free to leave a comment below. And sign up to follow this blog!

Wali

Smooth, thin, as poi; fine, mashed, soft, powdery, supple, limber, as a dancer's body.

When you find that perfect poi, just the right consistency, it nice wali.  When you put hoʻo- in front of wali that becomes the action of making something smooth and thin.  Hoʻowali is the word used when mixing something like poi or dough, because your main goal when doing this is to get to that smooth, fine consistency.  NEVER a good thing to have lumpy poi.  You MUST hoʻowali until it is wali.  Bad karma to have lumpy poi.

Ua wali ka poi - The poi is smooth.
ʻuala hoʻowali ʻia - mashed sweet potatoes.

Nā mea hoʻowali o loko - digestive organs (literally "the smoothing things inside")

Palalē

1.  To speak imperfectly, as of one with a foreign accent or speech defect; to work in a disorderly, slipshod way; confusion.  
2.  To drip, spatter, spill, fart.

Once in a while I will come across a word that I don't know but I find very interesting and quite humourous.  Palalē is a new one for me!  And I'm going to make an attempt to use it at least once everyday this week!  And I think you should, too! 

When I first looked at it I thought of myself, and how I must have a "foreign accent" when I speak in Hawaiian. After all, Hawaiian is a second language to me.  And then as I read the other meanings, I couldn't help but laugh to myself at how ALL the meanings are not very flattering.  All the more reason to try them out in my daily usage of Hawaiian!

He mau ʻōhua lemu kaumaha, he mau ʻopeʻope palalē - heavy-butted passengers, farting bags (HEY, I didn't make this up.  This was a phrase found in Fornander's Hawaiian Antiquities, 4:577)

Naio

1.  pinworm, as in the rectum; white specks in feces; larvae, as of mosquitos; worm in dung or in taro.  2.  Inferior taro left in the field after the crop is removed.  
3.  The bastard sandalwood (Myoporum sandwicesne), a native tree.  
4.  Name of a seaweed

Of all these meanings, the first one is the most well known.  In fact, I would go so far as to say it is the most similar thing to a swear word in Hawaiian.  If anyone refers to you as a pala naio, OUCH!  that is a definite term of contempt, a definite swear word, cussing to the max!  It means you are not even worth as much as a daub of excreta.  We'll try to offset today's word with something much nicer tomorrow!

Naio ʻai kae - Dung-eating pinworm (an expression of contempt for one who slanders, especially his own ʻohana)

Kohu ʻole kahi wai o Kanaio - Unattractive is the water of Kanaio (A contemptuous expression meaning that something another person has said or done is worthless.  A play on naio, found in the anus).