English words from Māori
5 English words with Māori in their history, whether borrowed directly or passed on through other languages.
hoot
1. The word for the cry is inherited from Middle English huten, also houten and hoten, probably of imitative origin. The OED suggests that it represents an inarticulate sound like the hooting of…
kiwi
It is borrowed from Māori kiwi, a name imitative of the bird's call, according to the American Heritage Dictionary the call of the male. Etymonline says only that it is said to be imitative…
mako
It is borrowed from Māori mako (“mako shark”). Etymonline glosses the Māori word as "shark, shark's tooth" and calls its further origin uncertain; Wiktionary takes it as a Southern Māori dialect…
mana
It is borrowed from Māori mana (“authority, prestige, power”), from Proto-Polynesian *mana, from Proto-Oceanic *mana (“storm wind, power in natural phenomena”). It is cognate with Hawaiian mana…
moa
It is borrowed from Māori moa, a word recorded only in New Zealand Māori. Morris's “Austral English” (1898) describes it as the Māori name of the giant bird scientifically called Dinornis, which…