hohoa/hoahoa: To strike with a stick or club; to club; a club; a rounded tapa beater (also called pepehi); rapid beating, striking, as of tapa or pandanus leaves; a stick beater for washing clothes. Fig., bad-tempered, Keu ho’o keia a ke kanaka hoahoa, this person certainly beats the beater [in rage]. ho’o.hoa.hoa. (Pukui & Elbert, 1971)
kua: 1. Back, rear, burden, windward; to carry on the back, as a child. 2. To hew, chop,chip, hack, dub, strike, cut out; to fell, strike down, as an image; anvil, as of a blacksmith or for beating tapa; house used for beating tapa. 3. Beam, rafter. 4. Yoke of a dress; back of a garment; ox yoke. 5. Poles used in quilt making; the three unsewn quilt layers are placed on one another with the kua, poles, rolled into each end; the entirety is set over wooden horses and is stretched taut, so that the sewer may sew the layers together. 6. Variation of akua, god, image, especially after -a. 7. Midrib, as of pandanus leaf. 8. Third brew from kava. (Pukui & Elbert, 1971).
ahu: Heap, pile, collection, mound, mass; altar, shrine, cairn; a traplike stone enclosure made by fishermen for fish to enter; laid, as the earth oven. Cf. ahu waiwai, ahuwale, O’ahu. ahu kele, mud heap; muddy. Ahu ka pala! A heap of excreta [hence worthless; sometimes shortened to ahu only or to e ahu ana]! Ahu ka ‘ala’ala! A heap of squid ink! Not worth much! Ahu wawa, a great din. Ahu ili, a large inheritance or transfer [said of reward, vengeance]. Ahu ‘ena’ena, a red hot heap [an oven]. Ahu kupanaha ia Hawai’i ‘imi loa, a mass of wonderous things in deep delving Hawai’i. ho.’ahu. To pile, gather, accumulate, heap up; to lay away, as goods for the future; collect; collection, mound. Fig., to resent, dislike, Hale ho’ahu, storehouse, warehouse. Lumi ho’ahu, storeroom. E ho’ahu ana i ka huhu maluna o kela po’e, heaping up anger against those people. (Pukui & Elbert, 1971)
Aunty Puanani Rogers replaces a piece of coral at the kuahu, at the Mahunapu’uone Heiau at Wailua Beach February 2012
i’e kuku: Tapa beater. i’e kuku ho’oki: Tapa beater, as used to finish the tapa. Lit. finishing-beating mallet.
aloha: this is translated as love, affection, compassion, mercy, sympathy, pity, kindness, sentiment, grace, charity; greeting, salutation, regards; sweetheart, lover, loved one; beloved, loving, kind, compassionate, charitable, lovable; to love, be fond of; to show kindness, mercy, pity, charity, affection; to venerate; to remember with affection; to greet, hail. Greetings! Hello! Good-bye! Farewell!
aloha is a spiritual concept. We can understand the word aloha by the two root words, alo and ha. alo means: front, face, presence. ha means: to breathe, exhale; to breathe upon; breath, life.
mole: 1. Tap root, main root; bottom, as of a pit or of a glass; ancestral root; foundation, source, cause. 2. Smooth, round, bald. ho’o.mole. To smooth. 3. Name of the smooth, uncarved side of a tapa beater, as used at the end of the beating to smooth out the cloth. 4. To linger, loiter, lag; backward.
i’a. 1. Fish, or any marine animal, as eel, oyster, crab, whale. 2. Meat or any flesh food. 3. Any food eaten as a relish, with the staple. 4. Milky Way (capitalized I’a).
In ‘Olelo Hawai’i, there are 12 letters plus the ‘okina (‘) and the kahako (-). The ‘okina looks like an apostrophe and is pronounced as a glottal stop. The kahako is a macron that goes over the vowel in certain words to elongate the sound of the vowel…The macron is not always shown….The 12 letters are: a,e,i,o,u,h,k,l,m,n,p,w. These are pronounced: a= ah, e=eh, i=ee, o=oh, u=ue (long u sound), h=he, k=ke, l=la, m=mu, n=nu, p=pi, w=ve, okina=’
The Hawaiian alphabet, ka pīʻāpā Hawaiʻi, is an alphabet used to write Hawaiian. It was adapted from the English alphabet in the early 19th century by American missionaries to print a bible in the Hawaiian language.
kapa kulture 