māwhitiwhiti
1. (verb) to jump from one to another, jump over - like a grasshopper.
Engari i warea ki te huri ki te reo Pākehā, ka hoki mai ki te reo Māori, āhua pērā. He āhua māwhitiwhiti nei te āhua o te kōrero (Kāretu 2015). / But he kept changing to English, then returning to Māori. The way he talked was like a grasshopper jumping from one to the other.
2. (noun) short-horned, flightless grasshoppers of several species, locust.
I muri o tēnei ka tae mai anō te whakaatu, kai te tahuri rātau ki te kai māwhitiwhiti, ā ki te kōhua hoki i ngā kiri o ngā hōiho hei hupa mā rātau (TPH 31/5/1900:2). / After this further notification arrived that they had resorted to eating grasshoppers and boiling the hides of horses as soup for them.
Synonyms: whitiwhiti, kapakapa
3. (noun) crossover stitch - used in making kākahu. Also used as a term for the use of five whenu (or multiples of five) to create a hole for the here to go through, and as a counting system for the top and the bottom of a kākahu, ensuring that the weaver has the count correct.
