Inherited from Proto-Nuclear Polynesian *makawe (“hair, strand of hair” – compare with Hawaiian maʻawe “thread, strand” and Samoan maʻave).[1][2] Likely related to kawe “tentacle”. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)
makawe
- hair
- ringlet; a lock of it
- Synonym: io
- ^ Tregear, Edward (1891) Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary[1], Wellington, New Zealand: Lyon and Blair, page 199
- ^ Ross Clark and Simon J. Greenhill, editors (2011), “ma-kawe”, in POLLEX-Online: The Polynesian Lexicon Project Online
- Williams, Herbert William (1917) “makawe”, in A Dictionary of the Maori Language, page 197
- “makawe” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.