hawaiian

Pulu means wet, moist, soaked, saturated. When you got caught in the rain without your umbrella, pulu is the word you should've known. And if you want to soak something, just put the causative prefix hoʻo in front. Since pulu means soaked, then hoʻopulu means “to soak.

Lawelawe means "to serve, work for, minister to, tend, attend to." When you serve dinner, that's what you're doing, lawelawe.

Our Hawaiian word for today is leho for cowry shell. It is a very generic term for the cowry. Leho can be modified by adding other words to make the name specific for each of the many types of cowry, but leho will always work.

Our Hawaiian word for today is mea maʻa mau, meaning a common thing. Be sure to sound the glottal stop or ʻokina when you say maʻa. Hamburgers and French fries are a mea maʻa mau for our youngsters now days.

Our Hawaiian word for today is ʻauhau, it means tax. And yes, it's that time of the year again. As you work on your taxes, remember this Hawaiian word: ʻauhau.

Our Hawaiian word for today is another borrowed word, ʻApelia is how we say April in Hawaiian. We borrowed ʻApelia from the English language, which borrowed it in turn from the Latin. It is the fourth month of the year.

Hoʻokaʻaʻike means to communicate. There's a lot more to communicating than just talking, and you'll find this new word very handy.

Hōʻole means to deny, refuse, reject, veto, and many more things of that nature. That's what the legislature did when they refused to pass the bill you wanted passed – hōʻole.

Pololei means correct. Pololei ʻoe means “you are correct.”

Iwakālua, meaning twenty, is our Hawaiian word for today, and a good one to learn since it is a little different from all the other numbers in our counting.

Pulelehua is the Hawaiian word for butterfly. There are so many beautiful butterflies in Hawaiʻi, it's good to know what to call them.

Our Hawaiian word for today is something we all like to eat, often with kālua pig. Kāpiki means cabbage. The next time you order kālua pig and cabbage, call it kāpiki.    

For the caller who wanted to know what puana meant, as in the line so commonly used in the last verse of a song. In that case, puana means the attack or beginning of a song. Haʻina ʻia mai ana ka puana just means to start to tell the summary, refrain of the song.

If you listen to Hawaiian speakers, you often hear the word mea. Mea just means “thing,” and it can be used in so many different ways, usually with a modifier. A mea hula is a dancer, a mea nui is a large or important thing, and a mea oli is a chanter.

Our Hawaiian word for today is another common one, a word we can all use everyday. ʻŌmole is the Hawaiian word for jar, any kind of jar.

We all have them, and we all clean them, and we should know what to call them. Our Hawaiian word for today is niho, for tooth. Next time you're going to see your dentist, remember today's word: niho. See if the dentist knows how to say the word “tooth” in Hawaiian!

Our Hawaiian word for today is a new one, pāmia. It means used, as in second hand. So a second hand car is a kaʻa pāmia.

Whether you use them as fences to keep cattle from strolling into your yard, or decoration in your home, pānini are a pretty popular plant in Hawaiʻi nei. Pānini is a cactus, from which we can also make liquor.

Koʻolau means windward. A very appropriate name for a mountain range that runs up the windward side of the island of Oʻahu. It can be used as an adjective too, to describe something that is on the windward side.

Our Hawaiian word for today, hāpai, is one most people in Hawaiʻi already know and use, even in English conversation. It means to carry, and is most often used to describe a woman who is expecting a baby. It also means “to lift, raise, hoist, hold up, or support.”

Wānana means “prediction or to predict, to foresee, foretell or to prophesy.”

Our Hawaiian word for today is alaheʻe haole. Together alaheʻe haole is the Hawaiian name for mock orange, that handy bush so many of us use to make leis.

Leʻa means: joy, pleasure, happiness, merry, and many more wonderful feelings. Yes, it is the same leʻa we use in the name of the double hull sailing canoe Hōkūleʻa. Hōkūleʻa translates to mean “star of gladness.”

Hoʻomana means religion. For example, Ka Hoʻomana o Iesu Kristo o nā Poʻe Hoʻāno o nā Lā Hope Nei is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Hapalua means “half,” a very handy word. Hapalua kālā would be half dollar, and hapalua kālani would be half gallon.

Helu kuhi means zip code. Remember to use a helu kuhi, or zip code, when addressing your envelopes!

Meʻe is a hero, heroine, or an important person. For many of our youngsters, their meʻe is Superman, for others it might be you. Do you have a favorite meʻe? A meʻe punahele? (A favorite person?)

Neʻe means to move along little by little, as many of us do everyday in heavy traffic. It can also be used to tell someone that you have moved from one place to another – ua neʻe ō – I have moved.

Most people know the ipu as a musical instrument made out of a gourd. But ipu is a general word used for any type of container. Such as a: dish, mug, calabash, pot, cup, bowl, basin, or even a utensil.

We all fill out forms, and you should know that those blanks you must fill in are hakahaka. Hakahaka just means “vacant space,” like those blanks on a form.