Search results for

Almost everyone knows that hula means, but did you know that hulahula means ballroom dancing with partners? Hulahula also means American dancing, ball, or even masked hula dancing. Don't confuse it with hula for the Hawaiian dance. Hulahula also has other meanings, such as the twitching of an eyelid, or the ceremonial killing of a pig and offering it to the gods during ceremonies dedicating a temple.

Today on the Conversation, we're revisiting a few of our favorite interviews with entrepreneurs in the local tech space.

Our Hawaiian word today is a good example of the importance of putting the right stress on vowel sounds, or leaving them off. Lolo means brains, and it is from that root word that we get such new words as lolo uila: one of the words for computer – an electric brain. If you say it with stress on both vowels it becomes lōlō, and that means paralyzed, numb, feeble-minded, or crazy. Be careful how you pronounce Hawaiian words.

Pāʻani means to play, or a sport, game, or amusement. Pāʻani can also mean to joke.

Makua is a very general term for parent, or any relative of the parent's generation, as in an uncle or aunt. Since the main stock of a plant is thought of as the parent, you can also call it a makua. You can modify it to be more specific, as makua kāne for father.

We told you about ʻelemakule, which means old man, and today's Hawaiian Word of the Day is luahine, or old woman. It can also mean old lady. Both are proper terms, and it is perfectly all right to describe our older friends as ʻelemakule and luahine.

Our Hawaiian word for today is kī hōʻalu. Kī is the Hawaiian word for “key” and hōʻalu means “to slacken or loosen.” It is the popular Hawaiian term for what in English we call “slack key.”

Troy Nunley, Chief Judge of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, talks about the strain that immigration cases have placed on his district and what led him to ask for help from Hawaiʻi judges; Honolulu's director of botanical gardens, Joshlyn Sand, on cleanup efforts at Hoʻomaluhia Botanical Garden in Kāne‘ohe following the Kona Lows

Leo means voice, tone, tune, melody, sound, command, and more. It is most often used today to mean voice and is heard often in describing singers, such as the leo nahenahe, or as the name of the private preschool Punanaleo, “the voice nest.”

Akua has many meanings, but none more common in today's Hawaiian than "god." In Hawaiian, there are many different kinds of gods, and akua can mean goddess, spirit, ghost, devil, image, idol, divine, even a corpse.