tawau

Maori

Etymology

Compare with Rarotongan tāpau and Tahitian tāpau. (This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Sense of rubber is semantic broadening, compare with Samoan pulu (originally “sap esp. of the breadfruit tree”) and Malay getah (originally “plant sap” in general) for similar evolution.

Noun

tawau

1. latex or milky sap of any plant.
2. rubber, flexible and pliable material made from coagulating natural latex of the rubber tree (Hevea brasiliensis).

Further reading

• Williams, Herbert William (1917) “tawau”, in A Dictionary of the Maori Language, page 476
• “tawau” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.