kanohi
Maori
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Related to Tongan kanoʻi mata (“eyeball”) ultimately from Proto-Oceanic *kanoŋ qi mata corresponding to kano i mata (“seed on [one's] eye”)[1][2] – compare with Malay biji mata (“eyeball”, lit. “seed of the eye”) for similar semantic connections.
Sense of face broadened from sense of sight itself from original sense of eye – compare with parallels in German (between Sicht and Gesicht), as well as overlap in Tahitian mata.
Noun
[edit]kanohi
Descendants
[edit]- Maori: nohi
References
[edit]- ^ Tregear, Edward (1891) Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary[1], Wellington, New Zealand: Lyon and Blair, page 123
- ^ Ross, Malcolm D., Pawley, Andrew, Osmond, Meredith (2016) The lexicon of Proto-Oceanic, volumes 5: People, body and mind, Canberra: Australian National University, →ISBN, page 121