humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa

See also: humuhumu-nukunuku-apuaʻa

Hawaiian

FWOTD – 19 October 2012

humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa

Etymology

Compound of humuhumu (“triggerfish”) +‎ nuku (“snout”) +‎ nuku (“blunt”) +‎ ā (conjunction between two adjectives) +‎ puaʻa (“pig; pig-like”) = “triggerfish with a snout that is blunt and pig-like”.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [ˌhumuˌhumuˌnukuˌnukuˌwaːpuˈwɐʔə]

Noun

humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa

1. reef triggerfish, humuhumunukunukuapuaa
   • 1998, He Moʻolelo No Kamapuaʻa, G.W. Kahiolo, page 15:

     Ko ia nei heleāiʻa akula nō ia ma ke kino humuhumunukunukuapuaʻa a hiki kēia i Molokaʻi.

     He swam away very quickly in his fish form as a reef triggerfish until he finally reached Molokai.

References

• Lorrin Andrews (1865) A Dictionary of the Hawaiian language, page 225
• Mary Kawena Pukui, Samuel H. Elbert (1986) Hawaiian Dictionary: Hawaiian-English, English-Hawaiian, →ISBN, page 91

Further reading

• Entry for humuhumunukunukuāpuaʻa at Wehewehe.org