Aotearoa

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Māori Aotearoa (“long white cloud; North Island; New Zealand”), see there for more.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (New Zealand) /aʊ.tɪəˈrɐʉ.a/, (prescribed) /aʊ.teəˈroː.a/

  • Audio (New Zealand):

    (file)

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɑː.əʊ.teəˈrəʊ.ə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌaʊ.ti.əˈɹoʊ.ə/, /ˌɑ.oʊ.ti.əˈroʊ.ə/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /aʊˌtæɪ.əˈrɐʉ.ə/

Proper noun

Aotearoa (chiefly New Zealand)

2. (obsolete) The North Island of New Zealand.

   Synonym: North Island

   • 1855, Sir George Grey, Polynesian mythology and ancient traditional history of the New Zealand race: as furnished by their priests and chiefs‎^[1]:

     he found in the sea this island Aotearoa (the northern island of New Zealand), and he thought he would land there.

4. New Zealand, a country in Oceania; the Māori name, used especially in a Polynesian or precolonial context.

   Synonyms: Aotearoa New Zealand, New Zealand

   • 1981, Tim Finn, Split Enz, “Six Months in a Leaky Boat”:

     Aotearoa / rugged individual / glistens like a pearl at the bottom of the world [...].

   • 2009, Diarmaid MacCulloch, A History of Christianity, Penguin, page 877:

     The Maori in Aotearoa (the pair of major islands which Europeans have known as New Zealand) were part of the same oceanic culture.

   • 2019, Kamaka Pili, “Ep. 37: Manulani Aluli Meyer - Hawaiian Epistemology” (4:35 from the start), in Aloha Authentic‎^[2], via YouTube:

     You were a professor at the University of Hawai'i at Hilo and I know you went to Aotearoa to have some time there and gain some experiences.

   • 2020, Sujit Sivasundaram, Waves Across the South, William Collins, published 2021, page 10:

     There then arose a triangle of settlement across the vast Pacific, which had as its points Hawai‘i, Rapa Nui and Aotearoa.

   • 2021 October 16, Lidia Kelly, “New Zealand vaccinates 2.5% of its people in a day in drive to live with COVID-19”, in William Mallard, editor, Reuters‎^[3], archived from the original on 16 October 2021, Asia Pacific:

     "We set a target for ourselves, Aotearoa, you've done it, but let's keep going," Ardern said, using a Maori name for New Zealand at a vaccination site, according to the Newshub news service.

   • 2025, Karen Hao, Empire of AI, New York City: Penguin Press, →ISBN:

     In 2012, the two moved from Wellington back to the town where Jones was born, Kaitāia, in Aotearoa’s northern reaches.

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:Aotearoa.

Derived terms

• Aotearoan
• Aotearoa New Zealand

See also

• Kiwi

Further reading

• H. W. Orsman, editor (1997), The Dictionary of New Zealand English: A Dictionary of New Zealandisms on Historical Principles, Auckland: Oxford University Press
• T. Deverson, G. Kennedy, editors (2005), The New Zealand Oxford Dictionary, Victoria: Oxford University Press
• M. King (2004), The Penguin History of New Zealand, Auckland: Penguin Books

Hawaiian

Alternative forms

• Aokealoa

Etymology

Unadapted borrowing from Māori Aotearoa in the 20th century.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˌao̯ˌke.aˈlo.a/, [ˌɐo̯ˌkɛ.jəˈlo.wə]

Proper noun

Aotearoa

1. New Zealand (a country and archipelago of Oceania, to the east of Australia)

   Synonym: Nukilani

Māori

Alternative forms

• Ao-tea-roa

Etymology

Possibly from ao (“cloud, daytime, world”) +‎ tea (“white”) +‎ roa (“long, tall”); often translated as “the land of the long white cloud” (the assumption presumably being that the phrase referred to a mountainous land seen on the horizon from a canoe, after an ocean voyage). The term may have originally referred to the North Island only.

The original name used by the indigenous Polynesian population was Te Ika-nui-a-Māui or Te Ika-a-Māui (“The great fish of Maui”); from te (“the”) +‎ ika (“fish”) +‎ nui (“big, great, large”) +‎ a (“of”) +‎ Māui (a Polynesian demigod).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aoˈtearoa/ [ɐɔˈtɛɐɾɔɐ]

  • Audio:

    (file)

Proper noun

Aotearoa

1. New Zealand (a country and archipelago of Oceania, to the east of Australia)
2. The Māori name for the national anthem of New Zealand, God Defend New Zealand
3. (obsolete) North Island (of New Zealand)

Derived terms

• Aotearoa Tuatahi
• Ara Poutama Aotearoa
• Ararau Aotearoa
• Kaunihera Māori o Aotearoa
• Mana Arotake Aotearoa
• Mana Rapuara Aotearoa
• Paerewa Aotearoa
• Pāremata Aotearoa
• Penihana Aotearoa
• Pirihimana o Aotearoa
• Poirewa Aotearoa
• Rōpū Aotearoa Tuatahi
• Rōpū Ture o Aotearoa
• Tatauranga Aotearoa
• Toi Aotearoa
• Toi Māori Aotearoa
• Uruwhenua o Aotearoa
• Waka Rererangi Aotearoa
• Wānanga o Aotearoa

Descendants

• → English: Aotearoa
• → Hawaiian: Aotearoa, Aokealoa
• → Korean: 아오테아로아 (aotearoa)
• → Paiwan: Autearua
• → Tahitian: Aotearoa

Further reading

• “Aotearoa” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.

Portuguese

Pronunciation

 

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /a.o.te.aˈɾo.ɐ/

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /a.o.te.aˈɾo.ɐ/
  • (Southern Brazil) IPA^(key): /a.o.te.aˈɾo.a/

 

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐ.u.tjɐˈɾo.ɐ/

• (Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐ.u.tjɐˈɾo.ɐ/
  • (Northern Portugal) IPA^(key): /ɐ.u.tjɐˈɾo(w).ɐ/

Proper noun

Aotearoa ?

1. Aotearoa (new Zealand, a country in Oceania; the Māori name, used especially in a Polynesian or precolonial context)

   Synonym: Nova Zelândia