Wehewehe Wikiwiki Hawaiian language dictionaries

1. vi. To root, wallow, as a hog; to tread, trample, push, as through mud or grass; to struggle; to roil, as water; to delve, search. Also haunaku. See ʻakaʻakai and ex., oi 2. Naku liʻi, groveler. hoʻo.naku Caus/sim. (PPN natu).

2. Same as nānaku, a bulrush.

3. n. A kind of red-skinned onion.

Great bulrush, ʻakaʻakai (Scirpus validus), growing at the edges of brackish-water marshes in Hawaiʻi. The erect stem grows to 9 feet. Formerly Hawaiians used stems of bulrushes like grass or ti leaves for house thatch, for plaited mats for lower layers of hikieʻe (beds), or for some temporary purposes as the material is not durable. (NEAL 88.)

rushes.

to root; to trample.