maitai

See also: mai tai, maitaʻi, and maita'i

Hawaiian

Verb

maitai

  1. Niʻihau form of maikaʻi (“goodness”)
    Maitai au.
    I am good.

Usage notes

  • In Niihau, diacritics are omitted. If one were to use them, the spelling would be maitaʻi.

Maori

Etymology 1

From Proto-Polynesian *maqitaki; compare with Hawaiian maikaʻi and Tahitian maitaʻi.[1]

Adjective

maitai

  1. good, beautiful, agreeable

References

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

Etymology 2

Compound of mai (“from”) +‎ tai (“sea”), sense of iron from their introduction by trade with European sailors.[1]

Adjective

maitai

  1. foreign

Noun

maitai

  1. (esp. Urewera, Bay of Plenty) iron
    Synonym: rino
    1. metal
      Synonym: mētara

References

  1. ^ Smith, S. Percy (March 1900) “Wars of the northern against the southern tribes of New Zealand in the nineteenth century”, in Journal of the Polynesian Society, volume IX, number 33, pages 18-91

Further reading

  • “maitai” in John C. Moorfield, Te Aka: Maori–English, English–Maori Dictionary and Index, 3rd edition, Longman/Pearson Education New Zealand, 2011, →ISBN.
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