Wehewehe Wikiwiki Hawaiian language dictionaries

1. n. Taro (Colocasia esculenta), a kind of aroid cultivated since ancient times for food, spreading widely from the tropics of the Old World. In Hawaiʻi, taro has been the staple from earliest times to the present, and here its culture developed greatly, including more than 300 forms. All parts of the plant are eaten, its starchy root principally as poi, and its leaves as lūʻau. It is a perennial herb consisting of a cluster of long-stemmed, heart-shaped leaves rising 30 cm. or more from underground tubers or corms. (Neal 157–60.) Specifically, kalo is the name of the first taro growing from the planted stalk; names of generations as listed for Hawaiʻi Island (Kep. 153) are (1) kalo: see ex., palili, (2) ʻohā or muʻu, (3) ʻaʻae or ʻae, (4) ʻōnihinihi, (5) kokole, (6) pahūpahū.

• Examples:
  • Kō mākou kalo kanu o ka ʻāina (saying), our planted taro of the land [proud and affectionate reference to a chief].
• References:
  • PPN talo.

2. Same as kalokalo.

• References:
  • PPN talo.

Kipi kalo. Taro chip.

s. The well known vegetable of the Hawaiian Islands; a species of the arum esculentum; it is cultivated in artificial water beds, and also on high mellow upland soil; it is made into food by baking and pounding into hard paste; after fermenting and slightly souring, it is diluted with water, then called poi, and eaten with the fingers. NOTE.—The origin of the kalo plant is thus described in Hawaiian Mythology (see Mooolelo Hawaii by Dibble, p. 37): ulu mai la ua alualu la, a lilo i kalo, the fetus grew (when it was buried) and became a kalo.

s. One of the class of gods called akua noho; Opua ame kalo kekahi akua makau ia.

1. The taro (Colocasia antiquorum var. esculentum). The well-known vegetable of Hawaii. It is cultivated in artificial water beds, and also on high mellow upland soil. It is made into food by baking and pounding into hard paste. After fermenting and slightly souring, it is diluted with water, them called poi, and eaten with the fingers. (The origin of the taro plant is thus described in Hawaiian Mythology: Ulu mai la ua alualu la, a lilo i kalo, The fetus grew [when it was buried] and became a kalo).

[Ka, article, the, and lo, a god that killed men.] One of the class of gods called akua oikanaka: Opua ame Kalo kekahi mau akua i makau ia; Pua and Lo are gods who are feared.