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One of the Hawaiian words first learned by most non-Hawaiians is wahine for “woman.” Kāne for “man” and wahine for “woman” are often painted on restroom doors. It also means lady, wife, female, queen in a deck of cards, and even femininity. -
Pehea ʻoe – How are you? Pehea means “how” and ʻoe means “you.” We often hear this greeting even from those who do not speak Hawaiian. Pehea ʻoe? – How are you? Maikaʻi nō wau – Fine.
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Our Hawaiian word for today is ʻAuina lā. ʻAuina means “descending” and lā means “sun.” So the afternoon when the sun is setting is called the ʻauina lā. Aloha ʻauina lā is a good afternoon greeting. -
Piʻi mele, two words that used together mean “musical scale.” Just as we sometimes call the scale do-re-mi in English, in Hawaiian we sometimes call the piʻi mele by the first three notes: pa-ko-li.
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Although kamaliʻi literally translates to mean “little child,” it is always used in the plural form to mean more than one little child.
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Kāne is the Hawaiian word for man. You see this often in names like Kāneʻohe, which means bamboo man, and in many family names as well. It is also used for: male, husband, male sweetheart, and masculine.
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Ulu means “to grow, increase, spread.”
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Our Hawaiian Word of the Day is waiū, for “milk.”
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Ahiahi, the Hawaiian word for “evening,” is one that calls for a glide in your pronunciation.
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When someone asks how you are, a good response might be, “oia mau nō,” an idiom that means “same as ever, just the same.” It is often said in answer to the question, “Pehea ʻoe?”
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Kānāwai means “law, code, rule, statute, act, regulation, ordinance." There are many famous kānāwai, like the Law of the Splintered Paddle, and many we may not like. Ke kānāwai is “the law.”
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Here's a simple, short Hawaiian Word of the Day for you, it is ʻae. It means “yes, to say yes, consent, to confirm, grant, agree, approve, permit.” It is the word you so often want to hear in answer to your questions.
