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Idioms

Phrases

Proverbs

Loan words

Historical loan words

kūpapa

1. (verb) to lie flat, stoop, go stealthily.

Kūpapa ana rātou, ā, whati haere ana ki roto ki te huru (TP 1/2/1902:4). / They stooped down and fled into the undergrowth.

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Synonyms: toropapa, whakapapa, tāpapa


2. (verb) to remain quiet.

Nō te tekau mā waru o ngā rā o Mei kūpapa ana tētahi rangapū hōia (e toru tekau takitahi rātou) i tētahi taha o te awa (TWM 13/6/1863:2). / On the 18 May a company of soldiers (there were thirty of them) were waiting quietly on one side of the river.

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3. (verb) to be neutral (in a quarrel), collaborate, collude.

Ko Mangakāhia te māngai mō te hunga kāore i kūpapa ki ngā hiahia o te kāwanatanga koroni (TTR 1994:52). / Mangakāhia represented those who would not collaborate with the wishes of the colonial government.

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4. (modifier) at a low level, near the ground, above the surface.

E rere ana tēnā manu ki runga riro, mahue noa iho te kapua. Ko au ia e rere kūpapa ana i te mata o te whenua (TKM.MM 30/3/1863:22). / That bird flies very high leaving the clouds below. I fly close to the surface of the land.

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5. (noun) collaborator, ally, fifth column  - a term that came to be applied to Māori who sided with Pākehā opposition or the Government. There has been a shift from a general meaning of neutrality to the modern use, which now sometimes has derogative connotations, similar to such terms as 'turncoat', 'traitor', 'quizling' and 'Uncle Tom'.

Ka whakatika atu a Te Whitimoa me ngā hōia Pākehā, me te rau kotahi o Te Arawa, me ngā kūpapa kotahi rau e whā tekau, ko Te Keepa te meiha o aua kūpapa (TWM 22/4/1869). / Whitmore and the Pākehā soldiers set off with one hundred Te Arawa and one hundred and forty allies led by Te Keepa who was the major of those collaborators.
Ko te tikanga ake o te kūpapa ko ērā iwi i tautoko i te kāwanatanga i ngā pakanga whenua o te rautau 1800. Nō konā kua ara mai anō tērā kupu mō te hunga Māori e haukoti ana i ngā hiahia o te iwi Māori (Te Ara 2015). / The original meaning of the word ‘kūpapa’ was for those tribes that supported the government in the 19th-century land wars. Subsequently it has been revived as a term for Māori who act against the interests of Māori in general.

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6. (noun) New Zealand passionfruit, Passiflora tetrandra - native tendril climber with alternating, pointed, shiny leaves, white flowers smaller than the garden passionfruit and orange-coloured, pear-shaped fruit.

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