Wehewehe Wikiwiki Hawaiian language dictionaries

1. nvi., Pacific golden plover (Pluvialis dominica 🌐), a migratory bird which comes to Hawaiʻi about the end of August and leaves early in May for Siberia and Alaska. Figuratively, to repeat, boast; a scornful reference to foreigners (Kel. 70) who come to Hawaiʻi and become prosperous, and then leave with their wealth, just as the plover arrives thin in the fall each year, fattens up, and leaves; a less common figurative reference is to one who claims friendship or kinship that does not exist; in some localities the kōlea is an ʻaumakua; to call kōlea.

• Examples:
  • Haole kī kōlea, plover-shooting white man [said in astonishment and horror at the white man's shooting of plovers, contrasting with the laborious Hawaiian methods of catching plovers, a way of saying that white people are strange and different].
  • Kōlea ke kōlea i kona inoa iho, the kōlea just says his own name [of a boaster].
• References:
  • Cf. hula kōlea and saying, kauhua #2.
  • PCP toolea.

2. n., Stepparent, as makuahine kōlea, makua kāne kōlea.

3. n., The mottled periwinkle, probably Littorina pintado.

• Related:
  • Also: ʻākōlea, kōlealea, kūkae kōlea, pūpū kolea.

4. n., Native species of trees and shrubs (Myrsine 🌐 [Rapanea, Suttonia]) with oval to narrow leaves more or less crowded at branch tips, small flowers, and small round fruits among or below the leaves.

• Related:
  • Uses: red sap and charcoal from the wood to dye tapa, wood for houses, logs for beating tapa.
• References:
  • Neal 664.

5. (Cap.) nvs., Korea; Korean.

• Eng.

Golden plover (Pluvialis dominica fulvus). A winter mi- grant to Hawaiʻi in August and September. It returns to Alaska in May or June for breeding and rearing its young. The plover arrives thin and departs fat. The word kōlea is an uncompli- mentary term applied to persons who, like the bird, arrive in Hawaiʻi without wealth, become prosperous, then return home to carry on. (KILO.)

Small native tree (Myrsine spp.) growing in bogs and wet summit forests. Charcoal from the wood and its red sap are used to dye kapa, the wood to make houses, and the logs to beat kapa. (NEAL 664.)

the names of many Hawaiian birds come from their peculiar cries: alani, ʻaʻo, ʻālala, ʻēlepaio, nau, ʻūlili, kioea, and kōlea among others.

Parent-in-law. Makua kane kōlea, stepfather; makua hine kōlea, stepmother.

Small native tree (Myrsine spp.). (NEAL 664.) See Plants: Uses.

Small native tree (Myrsine spp.), found in bogs and wet summit forests. Charcoal from the wood and its red sap were used to dye kapa. The wood itself was used for houses and the logs on which to beat kapa. (NEAL 664.)