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The meanings given here relate to those in specific context of the site and do not necessarily include any or all other meanings. Where required, deeper explanations are provided within texts and footnotes provided on the website. Other meanings may be sought from Ngāpuhi language and cultural experts, Ngāpuhi dictionaries or by contacting the site administrator, Dr Benjamin Pittman. Recognising that many readers will be unfamiliar with Māori words, which are nevertheless essential to understanding the often complex situations described, for ease of reference and recall, the convention used is that Māori words are followed by their English equivalents on most occasions: while for some readers this may be tiresome it will save others having to look up words in the glossary each time they are encountered:
| ahi kā | continuous occupation of land or place; keeping the home fire alight |
| aho a ngā tūpuna | interconnecting threads of the ancestors |
| Aotearoa | the Māori name for New Zealand |
| āpōpō | tomorrow |
| ariki | first born; noble; senior chief |
| atawhai | adopted child; whāngai |
| awheto | vegetable caterpillar, a species of moth caterpillar which develops in the soil and becomes infected with the spores of the Cordyceps robertsii fungus |
| haerenga | trip; journey |
| hahunga | ceremony of scraping bones and painting them with kokowai before permanent internment in a burial cave or other place |
| hākari | large, celebratory feast |
| hapū | the main unit of a larger tribal nation and the most important kinship grouping for Māori; often referred to as a sub-tribe but strictly speaking a tribe or clan grouping with genealogical roots to others and often traqcing descent from a common ancestor or ancestors |
| Harakeke | New Zealand flax, Phormium tenax |
| hau kino | a bad or foul wind |
| hau pai | a good wind |
| heke | rafters, ribs |
| he ra pai | a good day; good days; some good days |
| heru | traditional comb for hair, made of wood or bone, often delicately carved |
| hikoi | a journey undertaken by a group with a set purpose and destination |
| hoa | friend |
| hoa riri | enemy |
| Hokianga | place in Northland, regarded by many as the cradle of Māori settlement in Aotearoa, in full Te Hokianga-nui-a-Kupe, The Place of the Great Returning of Kupe |
| hongi | traditional Māori and Polynesian greeting of pressing noses |
| huata | lances |
| hui | gathering; meeting |
| ika | fish |
| iwi | nation; tribal grouping; literally, bones |
| kahu | clothing; cloak, as in kahu kiwi, kahu kuri, kahu kukupa, kahu kererū, kahu kākā. Māori prized the feathers of certain birds such as Kiwi, Kākā, Kukupa/Kererū, Tui, Huia, and skins of the Māori Kuri |
| kai | food; eat |
| kaikōrero | distinguished orator and expert in the rituals of encounter |
| kainga | settlement; village; home without major fortifications |
| kaipuke | ship, European style boat |
| kaitaka | superior, finely-woven cloak of specially dressed muka and framed with geometric taniko borders |
| kaitiaki | guardian; caretaker of a place or taonga |
| kākahi | freshwater mussel |
| kānga wai | fermented corn |
| karakia | blessings; prayers; incantations |
| kaumātua | respected elder |
| kaupapa | matters for consideration; theme; topic; subject |
| Kauri | tree, Agathis australis, a superior tree of immense size and value once extensively milled for timber but now largely protected |
| kāwanatanga | government; central government |
| kehua | ghost; apparition |
| kewai | fresh-water crayfish; koura |
| Kiwi | Flightless bird, Apteryx, national emblem of Aotearoa |
| koha | gift; recompense |
| koikoi | spears; tao |
| kokowai | red ochre |
| kohuru | murder |
| koretake | useless, incapable, incompetent, baseless |
| koruru | mask representing the face of a prime ancestor, placed over the apex of the barge boards of a house |
| Kowhai | tree, Sophora microphylla which in spring produces a mass of large, golden yellow, pea-like flowers before leaves appear, very popular with birds such as Tui |
| kuaha | doorway |
| kupapa | Māori recruited as fighting forces to fight with government militia agaionst other Māori |
| Kuri | native Māori dog, brought to Aotearoa by early Māori voyagers |
| mahi | work; labour; task |
| mahi tuhituhinga | written work; work in writing |
| maihi | barge boards of a house, representing outstretched arms |
| mana | personal status; standing; authority; charisma; esprit de corps, particularly in the eyes of others |
| mana toa | warrior strength and status |
| Māori | a collective term for the various indigenous nations of Aotearoa |
| marae | a communal centre for meetings and ceremonies related to a particular family, hapū or iwi grouping |
| mataika | the first killed in battle (Kei au the mataika! Mine is the first!) |
| matakite | the seeing eye; visionary; able to look into and predict the future |
| matapihi | window |
| matauranga o te | knowledge of the upper jaw; esoteric and high-order priestly |
| kauae runga | knowledge |
| matauranga o te | knowledge of the lower jaw; knowledge of everyday and |
| kauae raro | practical things |
| mana whenua | imbued status and standing related to the possession and use of lands |
| mate ura ura | aftermath of a battle where there are no survivors on the losing side |
| mauri | life force; essential essence |
| maunga | mountain |
| moko | traditional tattoo deeply incised by bone chisels |
| mokopuna | grandchild |
| Muriwhenua | the northernmost parts of Aotearoa |
| muru | ritual plunder of property undertaken as payment for transgression |
| nga hau e wha | literally the four winds but also a term applied to people from far and near; those who have dispersed throughout the world |
| ngutu | lips; beak |
| ope | a travelling group/party with a common mission or purpose |
| pā | traditional fortified, defensible village usually constructed on a hill |
| pākanga | war; battle; fight |
| pākehā | a non-Māori person, especially of European descent |
| paru | dirt; mud; dirty; soiled |
| pepehā | saying; expression; proverb, usually related to a specific iwi, hapū or whānau group |
| Pēwhairangi | the Māori name for the Bay of Islands |
| pipi | edible sea mollusc |
| pito | umbilicus |
| poupou | carved supporting panels which bear the weight of roof rafters |
| poutokomanawa | main poles supporting the ridge beam of a house |
| pu | guns; firearms |
| pukapuka tātai | a book recording hand-written lines of genealogy |
| puke | hill |
| pure | rites of purification |
| Puriri | large tree, Vitex lucens, producing extremely hard, heavy and durable timber |
| Rakiura | Māori name for Stewart Island |
| rangatira | one born of the chiefly class |
| rangatiratanga | sovereignty; chieftainship; political authority |
| raparapa | fretted ends of house barge boards symbolising fingers |
| raupatu | assumption of territory through conquest and occupation |
| ra tapu | sacred or holy day; Sunday |
| ritenga | rites and rituals, customs, practices |
| rohe | boundaries; borders established between groups |
| rōngoa | medicines; rōngoa hoiho (horse medicines) |
| runanga | tribal councils |
| Ruru | Morepork, the New Zealand owl |
| tāhuhu | ridge beam of a house, the backbone of the house |
| Taiamai | the inland area from Pēwhairangi around Ohaeawai |
| taipo | goblin; tupua |
| Tai Hauauru | the west coast of Aotearoa |
| Tai Rawhiti | the east coast of Aotearoa |
| Tai Tokerau | the northern parts of Aotearoa; Northland |
| Tai Tonga | the southern parts of Aotearoa |
| take | issue; reason; cause; claim; concern |
| takiwa | region; zone; area |
| tāngata koretake | useless, incompetent, inconsequential people |
| tangihanga | mourning ceremonies associated with dying and death |
| taniwha | water-based guardian force or being, entity |
| taonga | treasured possession or something of great value |
| taotahi | tātai showing one person each generation |
| tapu | sacred; set apart under sanction |
| taro | Root vegetable, Colocasia esculenta |
| tātai (tūpuna) | line of genealogy; originally recited, often used in Ngāpuhi in preference to whakapapa although both are used interchangeably in the present text |
| taua | war party; army |
| taua kōhuru | war party to avenge a murder |
| taua muru | party or group seeking utu through ritual plunder |
| taua waka | war party; army travelling by canoe |
| tauhou | foreign;foreigners; tauiwi |
| tauira | student; one under formal instruction |
| tauiwi | foreigners; tauhou |
| Te Ika a Maui | the north island of Aotearoa |
| teina | younger brother or sister |
| tekoteko | carved figure at the upper apex of the barge boards, the high point rather like a tapu top knot on the head of a chief |
| Te Wai Pounamu | the south island of Aotearoa |
| tikanga | customs; traditions |
| tikitiki | top knot, the traditional hair style for Māori warriors often held in place with a heru |
| toa | warrior |
| toa rangatira | chiefly warrior |
| tohu | a sign; indication |
| tohunga | one chosen of the Gods; priestly expert in a designated field of knowledge and practice |
| tomo | arranged marriage; also, taumau |
| Tōtara | large timber tree, Podocarpus Tōtara, greatly favoured for carving and canoes |
| tuakana | the eldest child |
| tuarā | backbone, spine |
| tuna | freshwater eels |
| tuhituhinga | writing;written |
| tuke | elbow |
| tukutuku | woven panels with symbolic patterns used between poupou in whare whakairo |
| tūpuna | reveredancestors; grandparents; also, tīpuna |
| turangawaewae | foothold; ancestral lands to which attach rights of occupation |
| ture | law(s) |
| tuturu | real; true; authentic |
| uri | descendants |
| utu | reciprocity; payback; return; response; price; reward; cost |
| wai | water |
| waiata | songs |
| wairua | sacred spirit |
| waka | canoe |
| waka taua | war canoe |
| whakamoe | tātai showing marriages |
| whakapapa | genealogy often traced from an eponymous ancestor; tātai |
| whakaruruhau | protector (literally, shelter from the winds) |
| whakatauki | saying; proverb; aphorism |
| whānau | family; extended family; be born; birth |
| whāngai | adopted child; literally a ‘feeder’ child; also, atawhai |
| whanaunga | relation; relationship |
| whānui | greater, wider, as in Ngāpuhi whānui – greater, the whole of Ngāpuhi as a grouping and alliance |
| whare whakairo | traditional carved meeting house, the focal point of a marae |