Women of the Pacific, the possible origin of the Polynesian word for "girl" / "woman" is going to be a mind trip though maybe not a surprise--you were the boxes, chariots, and ships of men. =============================================
In Hawai'i, the word for "#girl" is #WAHINE, and related to this word is #HINA... which is the name of the #moon #goddess.
Let's jump right into it:
The nearest linguistic cognate in #Sanskrit likens women to objects and things that #warriors ride inside of and upon, and store precious things inside, namely vehicles, ships and boxes:
It means "#chariot", "#causing to #flow", "#bringing", "#bearing the #yoke" (like a #cow), "#river".
Some of these associations, like "flow" and "river" are pretty obvious. Others require a little circumspection to come to terms with, for example "bearing" and "yoke", which from a Western point-of-view seem objectifying and demeaning on the surface. But that's the problem--it's a western point-of-view.
In ancient India, the cow was and in many places still is regarded with extreme reverence, and supreme holiness. Many Hindu are forbidden to eat cow, as it is #tapu and a desecration of the holy force behind its symbolism. Cows produce milk and nurse their young, their strength, along with bulls, enable agricultural civilizations to thrive, tilling the land, and fertilizing the soil through their nutrient-rich fecal matter. The cow is the ultimate symbol of creative power--even its shit encourages life--and it is no wonder that the constellation #Taurus is associated with the class of astrological signs known as "#Earth #Signs".
An extension of VAHIN is #VAHINI, a #militaristic term meaining "#host", "#battalion".
What is the underlying etymology of this word?
VAHIN and VAHINI break down into the following words:
* #VAH (वह्): "#bearing", "#drawing" (as of water from the river), "#carrying" (as of water in a jar, or children, both symbolic of "#life" and "#immortality"), "#holding"
* #VAHI (वाहि): (as above)
* #VAHA (वाह): "#WIND", "#way", "#undergoing", "#stream", "#draught-#animal", "#road", "river", "#riding", "#producing", "#flowing", "#effecting", "#conveying", "#conveyance", "#causing", "#CARRIER OF #BURDENS", "#carriage", "#current"
* #VAHINI (वाहिनी): "battalion"
#YA (य): Suffixed with the Sanskrit sound -YA, VAH- and VAHA- conveys a sense of transportation: "#carriage", "#joining", "#wind", "#coming", "#going", "#traveling", "#venturing", "#marching", "#arriving", etc.
This is what turns VAH for "stream" into VAHA (VAH + YA) for "#ship", or "#boat", or "#chariot".
#HINA / #HINI (हीन): "#wanting", "#want", "#vile", "#subtraction", "#short", "#omitted", "#mean", "#low", "#lost", "#strayed from", "#little", "#left out", "#excluded", "#faulty", "#devoid", "#destitute", "#deficiency", "#DEFEATED", "#BROUGHT #LOW", "#decrepit", "#base", "#bad", "#absence", "#inferior", "#weak", "#neglected", "#shut #out", "#EXCLUDED", "#FORSAKEN", "#INSUFFICIENT", "#DEVOID OF", "#DEPRIVED OF", "#WITHOUT", "#DEFECTIVE", "#DEFICIENT", "#ABANDONED", "#INFERIOR TO", "#LOWER", "#WEAKER", #POOR"
It is immediately apparent that the word "HINA" is related to the word "#SIN" as used by Indo-European languages, precisely in the sense used in the #Spanish language, as in SIN SUCRE, or "without sugar".
The applications of the word HINA in Sanskrit echo all the negative female archetypes in 'Ōlelo Hāwai'i and Te Reo Maori words and names for goddesses. One of the most feared is #HINENUITEPO, "The Great Woman of Night", a #temptress and #Circe-like character who lures men to their dooms, and HINENUIOTEKAWA, "The Great Woman of the Waka Root", who abandoned her husband (as with the Sanskrit meaning of HINA "to abandon").
HOWEVER, this is not always the case that HINE is associated with negative heroines. Instead, many #Maiden goddesses are revered as mother goddesses--loved for their beauty, nurturing, strength--such as #HINEAHUPAPA, whose children were Sky powers, the supporters of heaven.
The Sāmoan cognate, on the other hand, is slightly less negative to neutral--#SINA.
Sanskrit SINA means, as in Sāmoan: "#WHITE"
In India, the color white symbolizes #spiritual #rebirth. #Ascetics often sprinkle their bodies with white #ash. In this sense it is also associated with #death, though as a natural stage of the eternal cycle of #birth-#life-death and #regeneration. Fearsome? Perhaps. Some cultures (like Hindu and Polynesian) view death as a necessary and unavoidable phenomenon, as well as a tutelary power, and sanctuary for the ancestors.
Other definitions of SINA include: "#provision", "one-eyed", "#garment", "#fetter", "#bond", "#body", "#blind".
This elderly epithet is also present in the Lakota use of the word #šiná meaning "blanket". This is an obvious link in that the blanket literally provides warmth and shelter to an elderly woman, but figuratively, the metaphor communicates protectiveness and reverence of grandmothers and mothers. Old age and vulnerability to coldness go hand-in-hand.
Also, there is a Lakoa story told of a magical elderly woman weaving a blanket in a cave. She has been doing so for thousands of years. When she completes the weaving of the blanket, then the world will end.
In general, these additional layers of meaning suggest also advanced age. That is the precise meaning in Sāmoan. #Fogasina, for example, means "white-haired".
Let's talk about the militaristic tone of some of these terms. In a sense, while militaries are generally comprised of men, collectively as part of a #cohort, #batallion, #crews of ships, militaries represent a #defensive, #protective bulwark against individual harm.
"Strength in numbers."
And as "chariot", to an #infantryman, the most fearsome units of the ancient world were horse-drawn #chariots, which could devastate the heaviest of infantry until the advent of the Macedonian phalanx (Μακεδονική φάλαγξ)), an improvement upon the heavy infantry hoplite, just prior to 331 B.C.E. during the reign of Phillip II of Macedon, Alexander the Great's father. Horses were strong. Chariots were swift. Offering a degree of cover from the chariot walls, charioteers could avoid most ground-level attacks to their vital organs. They could engage equally well from long-ranges with the bow, at medium ranges with the spear, and rapidly close the distance by bearing down upon their enemies quickly to decimate routed infantry units, or break through lighter infantry lines, penetrate defenses and open up wounds in an enemy formation into which lighter units could advance and carve a swath of carnage through the weakened front. A horse's mass was also a weapon and could crush a man under hoof and wheel. The chariot was only checked by the heavy elephant mount, bow, and flame.
VAHIN + YA, then, is a celebration of the feminine, perhaps peculiar by modern values and perspectives, but nonetheless empowering in a sense, if not reverential of the #maternal. This reverential metaphor survives and is immediately recognizable in modern terms such as "#mothership", "#motherland", "#motherboard, etc. Ships are still referred to as "#she", because mothers are places of #security and #safety.
#MOON : So, how does this word come to be associated with the moon? Perhaps, because the moon has a highly mutable nature. The sun is always round, it is reliably bright of its own nature. If the sky is dim, it is because clouds obscure it. The moon on the other hand is reliably fickle. Like love, the strength of her brightness waxes and wanes. Her movements stir up the waters of the sea, symbolically churning up human emotions. Human female menstrual cycles are notoriously linked to the cycles of the moon. The crescent moon often represents the horns of the bull and goat, and other weapons of war like the bow, in contrast to the phallic sword and spear.
Also, like the Sun, the moon proceeds across the night and dusk sky as though drawn by draught-animals. In this aspect of HINA it is also the "lesser light" as with biblical tradition, opposite the "greater light", the Sun. Two lamps to illuminate the darkness. One of them "weaker" than the other.
In Sumerian, WAHINE could be related, through its #lunar symbolism, to the #Moon God SĪN (𒀭𒌍). In Akkadian: 𒂗𒍪 / EN.ZU, SU-EN, SU'EN, and 𒀭𒋀𒆠 (d).ŠEŠ.KI, DNANNA
𒀭 : (d)/[dingir] - silent, meaning "divine" 𒌍 : U+U+U / ten + ten +ten, that is "30", the sacred number of SĪN / SHĪN
𒀭: (d) 𒂗 : EN - "Lord", "Master" 𒍪 : ZU - "Material"
𒀭: (d) 𒋀 : ŠEŠ - "brother", "assistant"; this is also #MARRU, which is related to #MAR-, #MER- as in "maritime", and "mermaid" 𒆠 : KI - "earth", "place", "country"
Another name is NANNA, the origin of which and meaning is forgotten. If this language is indeed relate to Polynesian, then perhaps the Sāmoan radicals of NANA (NA + NA) can shed some light on why NANNA is related to the Moon.
NA - means "he", "she", or "they" NA - means "to conceal", "to hush", "to hide"
NANA then means "she (who is) concealed", "they hide", "he hides", "they (are) hushed", etc.
Hearkening back to the association of the moon with archery… NANA in Te Reo Māori means “eyebrow”, which is a bow-shaped arch above the eye, and in Mangareva, French Polynesi, where archery was still practiced in Te Moana Nui / the Pacific Ocean, NAHA means “archer’s bow“.
These are gods who protect secrets.
Perhaps when the Torah in Exodus 16:1 says "And they journeyed from Elim and on the Ides of the second month, after they departe from the land of Egypt, the whole congregations of Israel's sons came upon the wilderness of Sīn, which is between Elim and Sinai" it means that a secret voyage occurred on the sea--a secret obscured by "They Who Keep Secrets". By day the ancient navigators sailed by the Sun. By Night, they sailed by the stars and the moon. And both helped them mark the seasons for sailing, fishing, planting and sowing.
"And God said, 'Let there be lights in the expanse of the sky to distinguish between the day and the night, and let them be signs to mark the seasons and days and years. And let them serve as lights in the expanse of the sky to shine upon the earth.” And it was so.…" (Genesis 1:14-15)
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