whero

Māori

Etymology

Derived from Proto-PolynesianCategory:Māori terms inherited from Proto-Polynesian#WEROCategory:Māori terms derived from Proto-Polynesian#WERO *felo (“yellow, tawny” – compare with Hawaiian helo, Tongan felo and felofelo)[1][2][3] Sense of "yellow" displaced by kōwhai while evolving close to "red".[4]

Sense of “bright” is semantic evolution from “yellow”[4] > “bright”. This also evolved into sense of gold from its shine; recorded as ferro by Vincent Pyke interviewing one Mr. Palmer informed by one "Tuawaiki" (or "Tuwaewae") in Otago.[5] Similar parallels in the same Austronesian family can be seen in Tagalog between bulaw “reddish orange” and bulawan “gold”,[6] and Malagasy volamena (from vola mena, lit. “red silver”).

Pronunciation

Noun

wheroCategory:Māori lemmas#WEROCategory:Māori nouns#WEROCategory:Māori entries with incorrect language header#WEROCategory:Pages with entries#WHEROCategory:Pages with 1 entry#WHERO

  1. red (orangish or brownish)
    Synonym: kura
  2. (obsoleteCategory:Māori terms with obsolete senses#WERO) yellow
    Synonyms: kōwhai, renga
  3. (obsoleteCategory:Māori terms with obsolete senses#WERO) gold (element and metal)

Adjective

wheroCategory:Māori lemmas#WEROCategory:Māori adjectives#WEROCategory:Māori entries with incorrect language header#WEROCategory:Pages with entries#WHEROCategory:Pages with 1 entry#WHERO

  1. red
  2. (obsoleteCategory:Māori terms with obsolete senses#WERO) bright, shining
    Synonym: mura

Verb

wheroCategory:Māori lemmas#WEROCategory:Māori verbs#WEROCategory:Māori entries with incorrect language header#WEROCategory:Pages with entries#WHEROCategory:Pages with 1 entry#WHERO

  1. to redden

See also

Colors in Māori · ngā tae (layout · text)
     tea,      kiwikiwi      pango, mangu
             mea, kura, whero              karaka; parauri              kōwhai, renga
                          kāriki, kākāriki              kārikiuri
                          kikorangi              kahurangi
             tūāuri              waiporoporo              māwhero

References

  1. Tregear, Edward (1891), “whero”, in Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, Wellington, New Zealand: Lyon and Blair, page 622
  2. Ross Clark and Simon J. Greenhill, editors (2011), “felo.1”, in “POLLEX-Online: The Polynesian Lexicon Project Online”, in Oceanic Linguistics, volume 50, number 2, pages 551–9
  3. Branstetter, Katherine B. (January 1977), “A Reconstruction of Proto-Polynesian Color Terminology”, in Anthropological Linguistics, volume 19, number 1, page 21
  4. 1 2 Dodgson, Neil; Chen, Victoria; Zahido, Meimuna (November 2024), “The colonisation of the colour pink: variation and change in Māori’s colour lexicon”, in Linguistics, →DOI, pages 9, 16–7, 23–4
  5. Pyke, Vincent (1887), History of the Early Gold Discoveries in Otago, Otago Daily Times and Witness Newspapers Company, Limited, pages 2, 121 – page 121 with input by Thomas Pratt.
  6. Blench, Roger; Spriggs, Matthew (1999), Archaeology and Language III, Routledge, →ISBN, pages 128–9

Further reading

  • Williams, Herbert William (1917), “whero”, in A Dictionary of the Maori Language, page 581
  • whero” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.
Category:mi:Reds#WEROCategory:mi:Metals#WEROCategory:mi:Colors#WERO
Category:Māori adjectives Category:Māori lemmas Category:Māori nouns Category:Māori terms derived from Proto-Polynesian Category:Māori terms inherited from Proto-Polynesian Category:Māori terms with IPA pronunciation Category:Māori terms with obsolete senses Category:Māori verbs Category:Pages with 1 entry Category:Pages with entries Category:mi:Colors Category:mi:Metals Category:mi:Reds