English
hapua
Hapua comes from Māori hāpua ‘be hollow, depressed like a valley, be…’.
- Māorimodernhāpua‘be hollow, depressed like a valley, be hollowed out, scooped out’
- Englishearliest quotation 2000hapua
attested reconstructed ? uncertain or disputed
Lineage
- Māorimodernhāpua‘be hollow, depressed like a valley, be hollowed out, scooped out’
- Englishearliest quotation 2000hapua
Earliest quotation: 2000, R. M. Kirk, Two types of coastal lagoon, South Island, New Zealand: “Hapua take the form of generally coast-parallel bodies of…”
Every English word from Māori hāpua
Today it means
noun a river-mouth lagoon, chiefly in New Zealand, formed at the interface between a braided river and a mixed sand and gravel beach deposited and extended by longshore drift.
Language periods are conventional ranges, not dates for this word.
Etymograph / Māori hāpua / hapua