Wehewehe Wikiwiki Hawaiian language dictionaries

1. n., Threadfish (Polydactylus sexfilis 🌐). This fish was much esteemed for food. A large school was an omen of disaster for chiefs.

• Examples:
  • Kō kuli ē, nuku moi oe (song), your knees, like a moi fish nose.
  • He moi ka iʻa, ehu ka lani, moi the fish, misty the sky [of easy victory].
• Related:
  • Stages of growth: moi liʻi, little moi, 5 to 8 cm long; pālāmoi (Kauaʻi) or manamoi (Hawaiʻi), about 13 cm; moi, adult, 45 to about 97 cm. On Hawaiʻi the pālāmoi was about 30 cm.
• References:
  • See ʻehu #1.
  • PCP moi.

2. n., White birthmark.

3. n., A native variety of taro, with short, stocky growth, the leaf stems light green, the base pinkish, and base of leaf blade whitish; used for poi and table taro.

• Related:
  • Also: neʻeneʻe.
  • This name may be qualified by the colors ʻeleʻele, keʻokeʻo, and ʻula.
• References:
  • HP 25; Whitney 69.

4. n., A variety of sweet potato.

• References:
  • PCP moi.

Pacific threadfin (Polydactylus sexfilis). Reaches 3 feet in length. Its stages of growth are: moi, the adult stage; palamoi (Kauaʻi) and manamoi (Hawaiʻi), the middle stage, about 5 inches; and little moi, the youngest stage, about 2 or 3 inches long. The adult is often trapped in the net at a hukilau.