Kamakawi Word of the Day

leti

• (v.) to be rusty, to be rust-covered
• (adj.) rusty, rusted, rust-covered

Leti ei!
“I’m rusty!”

Notes: Heh, heh. That’s a little play on a song from The Venture Bros.

Today’s word is an instantiation of a very old (and no longer productive) pattern. The word derives directly from late, the word for “rust”, and the iku also derives from the iku for late. Basically, a few lines have been added, making it look like this poor, upside-down metal bird is shining with rustiness. Ha. Love it.

late

• (v.) to rust
• (n.) rust
• (n.) rusting

Late ia, he Paleti! Late!
“Rust, Brady! Rust!”

Notes: Well, it wasn’t a great game, but it was a pretty good game—and it had the right outcome! There were a couple of outstanding plays and it was a close game the whole way, but in the end, the Patriots fell to the Giants: 21-17. Nothing makes me happier than to see Tom Brady and Bill Belichick suffer.

Today’s word isn’t related at all to the word for “metal” (moka), but the iku is. Check it out. Late, which means “rust”, is the iku for moka turned on its head (to indicate that something bad has happened to it). As metal in its natural state isn’t rusty, rusted metal is the “bad” version of it—hence, the iku.

nina

• (v.) to be sweet-smelling, to be fragrant
• (n.) fragrance (only pleasant)
• (adj.) fragrant

Itilili heka! E nina!
“The air is sweet! And fragrant!”

Notes: A quote from one of my all time favorite movies. Today’s iku doesn’t look too bad for an ikunoala. I’m actually surprised I don’t use this word more.

Today I was having a discussion about terms for “smell” (in English). For me, to say something “smells” is almost always bad (unless it’s followed immediately by a “like” phrase), and the word “stink” is always bad. This isn’t the case, I guess, for a lot of people. For example, lots of people say that garlic “stinks”—people that eat garlic. To me, that’s like saying that a rose is flashy—or even that a rose stinks. The description just doesn’t make the slightest bit of sense. If something stinks, you do not eat it. PERIOD. Not only that, no one could possibly eat it. It’s not a matter of taste. Garlic has an aroma that carries and is distinctive, but so do jasmines. And if you say one stinks, then so does the other.

I swear, people be crazy!

mike

• (n.) albatross

Oloko Keli ti mike.
“Keli is dreaming of an albatross.”

Notes: HAPPY CATURDAY!!!

Here’s the picture:

What a big bushy tail she has!

Anyway, regarding this entry, here’s how I imagine the conversation will go in the future:

Person: So you had a Kamakawi Word of the Day blog?

Me: Yeah.

Person: And Kamakawi has a word for “albatross”?

Me: Yeah.

Person: And you had an entry that featured Coleridge’s “Rime of the Ancient Mariner”?

Me: Yeah.

Person: So was that the entry for “albatross”?

Me: No.

Person: …

Yeah. Oops. And now “albatross” is relegated to “afterthought” status. So it goes…

huva

• (v.) to blow out air

Kavakava novu! A huva ia i amo.
“The soup is hot! Blow on it.”

Notes: Huva is one of those words that arose mainly because of the shape I could make with the iku. It’s built off of hu, of course, and then by adding the little circle for the mouth, it looks like a face blowing out air. And voilà!

I think this is a useful word. It’d be perfect for modern birthdays. Although it occurred to me that I’m not sure if the Kamakawi would have candles—or if they did, if the concept would be borrowed from Zhyler. Apparently the oldest candles were made out of whale fat, and while the Kamakawi have plenty of whales about, they hold the whale in high esteem (indeed: it is one of the three sacred animals. It occurs to me I should add a tag for that and link to it here… [...and done!]), so I’m not sure if they would harvest them… Certainly they would have at one point in time, but I’m not sure if they would continue to (it’s something I’ve given a lot of thought to without coming to a conclusion).

Anyway, this is a true iku’ui. This is what I meant by that term: a syllabic glyph with an ideographic element to it, combined in a single iku.

kaino

• (n.) Hawaiian goose (nene)
• (nm.) a man’s given name

Ka ni’u ipe kaino!
“That goose bit me!”

Notes: And geese do bite. You be careful around geese! Those birds don’t mess around. If only I’d had a camera the day that goose tried to run me down… You think I’m joking, but it happened! My wife was there; she’ll attest to it!

The iku for kaino is one of my favorites, on account of how goose-ish it looks. It’s certainly a proud goose. I can see a language deriving the word from “pride” from the word for “goose”. Then you could make reference to a person’s goose-ishness.

For more information about the name Kaino, go here.

io

• (n.) dove

A hava ipe io iu fa li’i!
“That dove’s eating my seeds!”

Notes: Lousy doves! Always pecking away at all the seeds you worked so hard to sow! How would they feel if we went to their farms and pecked away at their seeds, huh?!

Okay, actually I got nothing against doves. They’re pretty cool birds. And I can’t imagine doves flying to a farm and eating the seeds lying on the ground…

The iku is an ikunoala, but it requires the “identity” determinative to get the “dove” meaning, so it’s classified as an ikuleyaka. For the other meaning, check tomorrow’s post.

Update: No, it’s not an ikunoala! I figured it out! For a detailed explanation, see tomorrow’s post. Spoiler alert:

fatoi

• (n.) bulbul

Mata ei i fatoi!
“I see a bulbul!”

Notes: I came across the word fatoi today while looking through my dictionary, and looked at the definition and thought, “What the heck is a bulbul…?” Then I looked at the spelling (the Kamakawi spelling, that is) and realized, “Well, it’s some kind of bird.” Heh. Pretty cool! While there are, of course, obvious drawbacks to learning a writing system with over 600 characters, this is one of the happy benefits.

For more information about the bulbul bird, go to its Wikipedia entry here. It seems like a spunky little bird. I’m not sure if I’ve ever seen one, but if I do, I’ll be sure to make a note of it and see if I can snap a picture.

ove

• (v.) to dissipate
• (n.) dissipation
• (adj.) dissipating

He kupiki ue ie ove o heva.
“Let’s wait for the fog to clear.”

Notes: Here’s an iku I thought worked out very well by happenstance. It’s a standard ikunoala (combination of o and fe), but it’s reminiscent of several similar words. Compare, for example, heva, which describes a wide area (e.g. one that something would disperse across) or is the word for “fog”. There’s also kawi, the word for “cloud”, which is a thing that may or may not disperse.

Another coincidence is the word ovethat in Dothraki, which means “to fly”. I don’t know if I ever gave much thought to the phonetic sequence [ove], but it seems to have cemented itself in my head as…airy, in some way. Actually what comes to mind specifically is the sound of a large bird’s wings flapping. Ove, ove ove… Is that just me? I think it might be…

le’o

• (n.) egret

Eli ei ie le’o hu’u!
“I love the mighty egret!”

Notes: Man, oh, man! I can’t believe I haven’t done the word for egret yet! Not only is the iku one of my favorite iku of all time, but I have a bunch of cool egret pictures and egret stories (seriously I do)! I remember telling them; can’t believe I haven’t yet. Anyway, to get us started, here’s egret picture #1:

Look at that jaunty little bird! What a sport! This was one of the many egrets my wife and I made friends with in Jamaica. In the days to follow, I shall have more egret pictures and stories (and related words).

Anyway, since I said I would, here’s my (current) fantasy roster (starters first then bench):

• QB: Tony Romo (Dallas)
• RB: Jahvid Best (Detroit)
• RB: Ryan Grant (Green Bay)
• WR: Calvin Johnson (Detroit)
• WR: Roddy White (Atlanta)
• WR: DeSean Jackson (Philadelphia)
• TE: Kellen Winslow (Tampa Bay)
• K: David Akers (San Francisco)
• DST: San Diego Chargesr
• QB: Matthew Stafford (Detroit)
• RB: James Starks (Green Bay)
• RB: Daniel Thomas (Miami)
• WR: Davone Bess (Miami)
• WR: Greg Little (Cleveland)

For those who follow football, you can see I’m soft at running back—and I’ve also got too many Detroit players. I’d love to move Ryan Grant (since I don’t believe in him at all) and Tony Romo (since I hate him), but I’m thinking of moving Calvin Johnson for a decent starting wideout and a major upgrade at running back (just so I don’t have so many players on Detroit). I’m quite happy I got former Cal standouts DeSean Jackson and Jahvid Best, though (and I seriously considered picking up Marshawne Lynch). Anyway, as far as I’m concerned, this is a starting point, not the end point. We’ll see what deals I can make to improve my lot.