This came up in a Pseudo-Linguistics and Adamic Languages forum: #PELU as "spear", apparently in use in #gagana #Sāmoa as "sword".
I corrected the original poster that it does not mean "sword" but was a borrow word into the Sāmoan language since Sāmoa does not have iron or smeltable quantities of other metals. Metallurgy was unknown throughout Polynesia, or at best chanced upon through shipwrecks from Asia.
Got me wondering, though.
It's a cognate of #PERU (Te Reo Maori) and #PELU in Hawai'i. It means in general "to bend", "to fold", "to hunch over", "to turn", "to turn around". As #MAPELU in Gagana Sāmoa it relates to old age and hunching over...implying the need for a walking staff to lean on.
It also occurred to me that elsewhere in the Americas, the country of Peru, which is on the Pacific Rim, might offer a clue. There is a famous hunchback god of fertility named #KOKOPELE, #KOKOPELLI known from Central and South America all the way up to the American Southwest among the Hopi and Navajo.
In the Hopi language:
#KOKHO are pieces of wood or sticks.
#KOKOAKT are ones who are bent forward (hunched over).
Well, well, well. TO'O / KO'O are digging sticks in Polynesian languages.
K...=T
O...=O
KH.='
O...=O
The Hopi name #KOKOPELLI is a conjoined variant on KOKO and #PÖLÖ--#KOKOPÖLÖ.
#POLI- refers to the #round, #circular, #ball-shaped bun called a "butterfly whorl" in English. It is basically ornamental hairstylings on the head of the Hopi #Maana (young virgin maiden, i.e. #Taupou).
In Polynesian dialects, the words #POTO, #POU relate to "all-around"-ness, "#wisdom", being "#wise", the convening of the #heads of a community, the councils, the "pillars" of a people. #POTOPOTO means "to assemble", #POTOPOTOGA means "an assembly", "a gathering". It is likely related to the 'Ōlelo Hāwai'i word #PŌ. The central pillars of a Sāmoan #FALETELE ("great house"), being not only round in and of themselves, also, the #ROLLED-up mats were stored between the massive pillars. These are obvious visual and physical cognates of the Hopi Maana's butterfly whorls, or hair buns--the "Princess Leia" buns. Pillars appear prominently in Polynesian legends in relation to Heaven as in the Aotearoa legends of #TOKOMUA, #TOKOROTO, #TOKOPA, and #RANGIPOTIKI. Four Pillars. The Maui Brothers--the #TIKI brothers, the Eldest, the Smartest, the Wall-Climber, and the Youngest--Kane, Kū, Lono, and Kanaloa. Tāne, Tū, Rongo, and Tangaroa. The Sā-Tagaloa -- Tagaloa-a-Talaga, Tagaloa-a-Lagi, Tagaloa-Ti'e-Ti'e, Tagaloa-a-Ui / Le Fe'e...etc. There are so many names, so many variations. All the same personages.
While I was looking up KOKO it occurred to me that phonetically our word for "stick", "staff" is very similar to our word for "#blood". Lo and behold, the Hopi have a similar word, an obvious cognate for "blood" in their words for "#dark #red" --#KOKOM- and #KOKOMA.
Variations of the roots words for "dark red" yield every shade of red and purple--i.e. #KOKOMAWSA for "dark red nearing purplish", literally "red like Maawsa (the god of the underworld)".
At any rate, there is a one-to-one relationship in these etymological studies, both in terms of semantics and in terms of their phonology.
Indubitably, the Hopi and Polynesians have long-buried history.
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