Kamakawi Word of the Day

tiki

• (v.) to be red
• (adj.) red
• (n.) lava (flowing lava, not hardened)

Tiki: A kama o hala’iki.
“Red: The color of life.”

Notes: There’s a story behind this example sentence. Once a long while ago, when the internet was young and folks still went to the store to purchase compact discs, an enterprising fellow (or felahiina) went and registered red.com when its registration had expired. And what did they do with it? Nothing, really, except put up a great big red R accompanied by the phrase “Red. The color of life.” You can still see it thanks to Archive.org by clicking here.

All good things must come to an end, though, and some time in 2005, a digital camera company purchased red.com. Thus the dream was over.

As for the Kamakawi word, “red” was a metaphorical extension of “lava”. Most (if not all; I can’t remember) of the color terms in Kamakawi derive from some real world object that is that color. Oddly enough, though, there’s an older color term which used to mean “red” which now means “orange”—but that story will have to wait for another day.