kū … kā
Used only in the idiom ʻo kū! ʻo kā! This originated in Wahineʻōmaʻo's chant: ʻO kū, ʻo kā ʻo Wahineʻōmaʻo, wahine a Lohiʻauipo (PH 184), bam! boom! Woman-in-green, wife of Sweetheart-Lohiʻau. Wahineʻōmaʻo did not know how to dance or chant; her song was merely a rhythm beat to which she marched about comically. Hence the idiom has come to mean “a lick and a promise, do it as quickly as possible and get it over with.”
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