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Loan words

Historical loan words

tupua

1. (modifier) strange, supernatural, abnormal.

Ka kite atu te wahine tupua i te waka e hoki mai ana, ka haere ia ki tātahi tatari atu ai. (JPS 1897:102). / When the strange woman saw the canoe returning, she went to the shore to wait for it.

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Synonyms: rerekē, tipua


2. (noun) goblin, foreigner, demon, object of fear, strange being.

Ka kohia atu hoki e mātou, e ngā wāhine me ngā tamariki, ngā kōhatu noa, ngā tarutaru noa, ka hoatu ki aua tupua, he kōhatu i paingia, ā, ka kohia ki ā rātou pūtea, he mea i makaa ko ngā tarutaru me ngā peka rākau i hoatu (Wh4 2004:135). / We, the women and children, collected stones and vegetation randomly and gave them to those strange beings. They liked the stones and put them in their finely woven bags, but the grasses and branches of trees that we gave them were thrown away.

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Synonyms: tipua

kōpere tupua

1. (noun) demon's arrow, gun - a figurative use.

I werohia pea te kōpere tupua (M 2004:320). / Pierced, perhaps, by the demon's arrow (M 2004:321).

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