Wehewehe Wikiwiki Hawaiian language dictionaries

A very active form of caus/sim. derivatives; see Gram. 6.4. Hoʻo- is treated as a prefix because it occurs only before bases; unlike prefixes, however, it takes the stress of a word, as does the following base; thus hoʻouna, to send, bears stress on the u and on the first o. Hoʻo- usually precedes stems beginning with the vowels i- and u- and all the consonants except the glottal stop. Important meanings follow:

1. Causation and transitivization, as pono, correct; hoʻoponopono, to correct.

2. Pretense, as kuli, deaf; hoʻokuli, to feign deafness.

3. Similarity, as kamaliʻi, children; hoʻoka maliʻi, childish.

4. No meaning, as kāholoholo, to hurry; hoʻokāholoholo, to hurry. The meanings of some hoʻo- derivatives are quite different from the meanings of the stems, as maikaʻi, good; hoʻomaikaʻi, to congratulate. Hoʻo- derivatives are defined under the bases. Delete hoʻo- and see the bases. (PPN faka-.)