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whiwhi. In DICTIOUS you will not only get to know all the dictionary meanings for the word
whiwhi, but we will also tell you about its etymology, its characteristics and you will know how to say
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Maori
Etymology 1
From Proto-Nuclear Polynesian *fifi (“entangled, confused” – compare with Tahitian fifi “chain”) related to Proto-Oceanic *pisi (“bind up, tie up, wind round, wrap” – compare with Tongan fihi “tangled, intricate, complicated”, Samoan fisi “to entwine” and Fijian vici “to bind, to coil”)[1][2]
Verb
whiwhi
- to wind round, to fasten
- Synonym: rawe
- to wrap around
- Synonym: rawe
- to encircle
Adjective
whiwhi
- entangled, knotted
- complex, complicated
- Synonyms: matatini, manganga
Noun
whiwhi
- fat covering entrails
Derived terms
References
- ^ See “fifi.2a”, “fisi” in POLLEX-Online: The Polynesian Lexicon Project Online. Ross Clark and Simon J. Greenhill, editors (2011).
- ^ Ross, Malcolm D., Pawley, Andrew, Osmond, Meredith (1998) The lexicon of Proto-Oceanic, volume 1: Material Culture, Canberra: Australian National University, →ISBN, pages 292-3
Etymology 2
Likely from whai “to possess, to pursue, to lay hold of” via conflation with reduplicated from whaiwhai.
Verb
whiwhi
- to acquire, to possess
- Synonym: whai
Further reading
- Williams, Herbert William (1917) “whiwhi”, in A Dictionary of the Maori Language, page 586
- “whiwhi” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.