maiʻao

Hawaiian

Etymology

Contraction of Proto-Nuclear Polynesian *mata-qi-kao lit. 'point of growth' (compare with Maori maihao “finger”) also related to Proto-Nuclear Polynesian *mati-kao.[1] See also ʻao “shoot, sprout”.

Noun

maiʻao

  1. fingernail
  2. claw or talon of a bird
  3. hoof of a horse

References

  1. ^ Ross Clark and Simon J. Greenhill, editors (2011), “maqi-kao”, in “POLLEX-Online: The Polynesian Lexicon Project Online”, in Oceanic Linguistics, volume 50, number 2, pages 551-559
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