Maoli

English

Alternative forms

• maoli

Etymology

Borrowed from Hawaiian maoli. Compare Maori (the indigenous people in New Zealand).

Noun

Maoli (plural Maolis or Maoli)

1. A native of the Polynesian people who settled Hawaii.
   • 1897, Mark Twain, Following the Equator […] ‎^[1], New York: American Publishing Company:

     The Maolis were very polite. I was assured by a member of the House of Representatives that the native race is not decreasing, but actually increasing slightly.

   • 1901, The Planter and Sugar Manufacturer - Volume 26, page 107:

     When the Hawaiians came to the islands they brought with them plants which extend throughout Polynesia into Malaysia and have accompanied the Maoli race in all their migrations, yielding them food, intoxicating beverage, material for cloth, rope and other domestic and religious paraphernalia.

   • 2004, Ward Churchill, Sharon Helen Venne, Lilikalā Kameʻeleihiwa, Islands in captivity: the record of the International Tribunal on the Rights of Indigenous Hawaiians:

     I have come across different concepts, and I'm curious about this wording for justice. So I wonder what is the meaning, what is the concept of justice in the Maoli language.

   • 2017, Catherine Ceniza Choy, Judy Tzu-Chun Wu, Gendering the Trans-Pacific World, →ISBN, page 143:

     At the heart of these issues are Maoli bodies and culture – two inextricably linked forms of commodity production from which both tourism and the prison industries extract value and capital.

2. Alternative form of maoli (type of banana).
   • 1889, Hawaiian Almanac and Annual for 1890 - Volumes 16-19, page 81:

     In the recent effort of the Hawaiian Fruit and Taro Co. to preserve bananas for export, the Iholena and Maoli — having more of the mealy qualities — were found to be the best for this purpose, while the China banana seemed to have no drying qualities at all, but usually melted away to a pulp.

   • 1940, Edward Smith, Craighill Handy, The Hawaiian Planter - Volume 1, page 175:

     Ka-ua-lau has fruit that looks like Maoli, except that when immature the dark green skin is speckled with light green spots which resemble fine raindrops, hence the name meaning "many little raindrops."

   • 1996, Peggy Hickok Hodge, Gardening in Hawaii, page 95:

     The varieties of those bananas are the Maoli, lholena and Popolu types.

3. A religious sect of central India.
   • 1909, Central Provinces district gazetteers - Volume 23, page 44:

     On the Pratipada (or the following day) the kalasthapna ceremony is performed by the Chief himself in the Maoli temple.

   • 1910, Sir James George Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy: 3. An ethnographical survey of totemism:

     The Maoli clan worships a goddess at a shrine which women may not approach.

   • 1995, Mijānura Rahamāna Mijāna, Inside India, page 243:

     Shivaji's childhood was spent among the Maoli peasant boys.

Derived terms

• Kanaka Maoli

Anagrams

• mailo