hāngū
1. (verb) to be dumb, mute, quiet, incommunicative, not talkative, silent, taciturn, passive, still.
Ko ana tikanga e rite ana ki tā mātou titiro ki te tangata i kīia e te iwi he tino tangata, ā hāngū tonu iho (TW 26/7/1875:112). / In our opinion his career is like the man who the people said was wise, but was mute.
2. (modifier) dumb, mute, quiet, incommunicative, not talkative, silent, taciturn, passive.
Mā tana noho hāngū ka kīia ai e te iwi he tika te kōrero tūtara mōna (TW 11/8/1877:322). / Because he remained silent the people said that the rumour about him was correct.
Synonyms: wahangū, māhaki, māika, nohopuku, tōngā, nguengue, whakamārie, whakamāria, whakamārire, hū, rata, hūnguengue, rarata, mārire, maho, rangimārie
3. (noun) mute.
I whakapai nei i ngā tamariki i mauria atu ki a Ia; i whakaora nei i ngā matapō, i ngā taringa kua turi, i ngā hāngū, i ngā kopa, i ngā repera (THM 1/4/1889:5). / He blessed the children brought to Him; cured the blind, the deaf, the mute, the lame and the lepers.
4. (modifier) passive - a grammatical term for passive sentences (rerenga hāngū) when the subject undergoes the action of the verb, i.e. is passive not active. In Māori, verbs used in passive sentences usually take a passive ending and the agent of the action is preceded by e.
He rerenga hāngū tēnei: Ka tukuna atu e mātou he karere ki a Rua i Matahī, kia haere mai ki te āwhina i a mātou (TTT 1/5/1925:227). / This is a passive sentence: A message was sent by us to Rua at Matahī to come to assist us.
See also pīmuri whakahāngū
