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Filters

Idioms

Phrases

Proverbs

Loan words

Historical loan words

aituā

1. (verb) (-tia) to have a mishap, have a disaster, have an accident.

He aha i aituā pēnei ai? (HP 1991:21) / Why did I have an accident like this?

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2. (modifier) ill-fated, disastrous, calamitous, fateful, unlucky, unfortunate, accidental.

Nō te tākiritanga o tana taha ka oho ake; mōhio tonu he tohu aituā (NIT 1995:313). / When his side twitched he woke up, knowing immediately that it was a bad omen.

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3. (noun) ill omen, trouble, tragedy, calamity, disaster, catastrophe, accident, fatality, misfortune, injustice, death - although often used in modern Māori to mean 'accident', the term traditionally implied that there were reasons for the calamity, including violation of tapu, of mākutu, or some other disturbance of the natural order.

(Te Māhuri Textbook (Ed. 2): 75-96, 140-153;)

He aituā, engari kua poropititia e ētahi o ngā hīnātore, ka pau i te ahi i taua wā (HP 1991:6). / It was a disaster but it had been prophesied by some of the wise men that it would be destroyed by fire at that time.

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See also Aituā

Synonyms: hauata, maiki, maikiroa, maruaaitu, mate, wairuatoa

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