kanaka
English
Alternative forms
Etymology
1840. From Hawaiian kanaka (“person”), ultimately from Proto-Polynesian *taŋata.
Noun
kanaka (plural kanakas)
- A person of Hawaiian descent.
- 2010, Mike Farris, Kanaka Blues, Savant Books and Publications, page 21,
- "Who was the call from?"
- "I don't know. Sound like a kanaka though.” When Erin frowned, he added, “A Hawaiian, like me.”
- 2010, Mike Farris, Kanaka Blues, Savant Books and Publications, page 21,
- (historical) A South Pacific Islander, especially a labourer in Australia or Canada.
- 1912, Arthur Berriedale Keith, Responsible Government in the Dominions, Volume II, page 1098,
- There remains one case to be considered, that of the deportation of the Kanakas who were introduced into Queensland for the purpose of work on the sugar plantations. […] It was, however, felt in the south that a white Australia was essential, and the Commonwealth passed in 1901 an Act (No. 16) which arranged for the deportation of all Kanakas within a few years.
- 1921, W. Somerset Maugham, "Red", The Trembling of a Leaf: Little Stories of the South Sea Islands, 2011, The Floating Press, page 47,
- The Kanaka at the wheel gave him a glance, but did not speak.
- 1933, Cambridge History of the British Empire, Part I, Volume VII, Cambridge University Press, Reissued 1988, Ernest Scott (editor), Australia, Volume 1, Cambridge University Press, page 313,
- So long as the Kanakas remained, white labour in Queensland went into the mills, from which the Kanakas were excluded, rather than into the cane brakes. Slowly, however, the change proceeded. […] The gentleman planter, owning broad estates worked by Kanaka gangs, crushing and refining his own sugar after a fashion in the plantation mill, was by that time obsolescent. Though the small farmers into whose hands the plantations were divided might employ a Kanaka or two, no Kanaka might own land.
- 1912, Arthur Berriedale Keith, Responsible Government in the Dominions, Volume II, page 1098,
Descendants
Translations
a person of Hawaiian descent
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See also
Hawaiian
Etymology
From Proto-Polynesian *taŋata
Noun
kanaka (irregular plural kānaka)
Descendants
Tok Pisin
Etymology
Probably from German Kanake (see other entries on this page for more).
Noun
kanaka
Derived terms
See also
Categories:
- English terms derived from Hawaiian
- English terms derived from Proto-Polynesian
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English terms with historical senses
- Hawaiian terms derived from Proto-Polynesian
- Hawaiian lemmas
- Hawaiian nouns
- Tok Pisin terms derived from German
- Tok Pisin lemmas
- Tok Pisin nouns
- tpi:People