tohunga

English

Etymology

From Maori tohunga (“skilled person, chosen expert, priest, healer”).

Noun

tohunga (plural tohungas)

  1. (New Zealand) A Māori chosen to be a specialist in a specific skilled field; especially, a priest.
    • 2003, Michael King, The Penguin History of Aotearoa New Zealand, Penguin, published 2023, page 68:
      Those who became tohunga did so not simply voluntarily, but because they displayed aptitudes at an early age which indicated to their elders that they had been chosen by deities to perform particular functions […] .

Derived terms

Anagrams

Maori

Etymology

Cognate with Hawaiian kahuna, Tahitian tahua, Tongan tufaga and Samoan tufuga.[1]

Noun

tohunga

  1. A skilled person, an expert
  2. A priest, a healer

References

  1. ^ Tregear, Edward (1891) Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary‎[1], Wellington, New Zealand: Lyon and Blair, page 524

Further reading

  • “tohunga” 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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