pounamu

English

Alternative forms

Etymology

Borrowed from Maori pounamu.

Pronunciation

Noun

pounamu (uncountable)

  1. (New Zealand) Jade, nephrite.
    • 1983, Keri Hulme, The Bone People, Penguin, published 1986, page 233:
      “They didn't exactly eat off pounamu plates, but they left quite a bit to us all.”
    • 2021 December 6, Charlotte Graham-McLay, “In New Zealand, the Fishhook Pendant Called Hei Matau”, in The New York Times‎[1]:
      Over time, the hooks became increasingly stylized and now are a popular shape for decorative pounamu pendants called hei matau, the first word indicating that the matau is worn around the neck.

See also

Hawaiian

Etymology

Borrowed from Maori pounamu.

Noun

pounamu

  1. jade, jadeite

Further reading

Maori

Etymology

Component namu “green-blue, grue” from Proto-Eastern Polynesian *namu (compare with Tahitian ninamu).[1] (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Adjective

pounamu

  1. dark green

Noun

pounamu

  1. greenstone, nephrite
    Synonym: pounemu
  2. glass bottle

Derived terms

Descendants

  • → English: pounamu
  • → Hawaiian: pounamu

References

  1. ^ Dodgson, Neil, Chen, Victoria, Zahido, Meimuna (November 2024) “The colonisation of the colour pink: variation and change in Māori’s colour lexicon”, in Linguistics, →DOI, page 9

Further reading

  • Williams, Herbert William (1917) “pounamu”, in A Dictionary of the Maori Language, page 347
  • “pounamu” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.
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