wānanga

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Maori

Etymology

From Proto-Polynesian *fanaŋa (story for entertainment, short repetitive chant) – compare with Rapa Nui vānanga (language), Hawaiian wānana and wālana (both “prophecy, prediction”), Tahitian vānaʻa (knowledge) and vanaʻa (lore, story).[1][2][3]

Noun

wānanga

  1. (obsolete) sacred ancestral medium
  2. person who is knowledgeable in traditional lore
  3. traditional knowledge, lore
  4. conference, forum or seminar
  5. instructor or expert

Derived terms

Descendants

  • English: wananga

Verb

wānanga (passive wānangahia or wānangatia)

  1. to meet and discuss
  2. to consider or deliberate

References

  1. ^ Tregear, Edward (1891) Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, Wellington, New Zealand: Lyon and Blair, page 594
  2. ^ Wilson, William H. (2012 December) “Whence the East Polynesians? Further Linguistic Evidence for a Northern Outlier Source”, in Oceanic Linguistics, volume 51, number 2, page 305
  3. ^ Ross, Malcolm D. (2023) Andrew Pawley, editor, The lexicon of Proto-Oceanic, volume 6: People, Society, Canberra: Australian National University, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 212; republished as Meredith Osmond, editor, (Please provide a date or year)

Further reading

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