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Loan words

Historical loan words

utu

1. (verb) (-a,-ngia) to repay, pay, respond, avenge, reply, answer.

Utua ai au e rima herengi i te wiki (HP 1991:26). / I was paid five shillings per week.

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Synonyms: whakahokihoki, whakautu, paremata, whakaea, urupare, whakahoki, hoatu, pei, kātoitoi, ō


2. (modifier) repaying, paying, responding, avenging, replying.

I waiatatia ai e Matangi-hauroa te waiata nei ki a Te Whatanui e whai ana kia oho te iwi o Te Whatanui kia haere ki te rapu utu mō te parekura (M 2004:298). / This song was sung by Matangi-hauroa to Te Whatanui with the object of rousing Te Whatanui's people to go and seek revenge for the defeat.

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Synonyms: whakautu


3. (noun) revenge, vengeance, retaliation, payback, retribution, cost, price, wage, fee, payment, salary, reciprocity - an important concept concerned with the maintenance of balance and harmony in relationships between individuals and groups and order within Māori society, whether through gift exchange or as a result of hostilities between groups. It is closely linked to mana and includes reciprocation of kind deeds as well as revenge. While particular actions required a response, it was not necessary to apply utu immediately. The general principles that underlie utu are the obligations that exist between individuals and groups. If social relations are disturbed, utu is a means of restoring balance. Gift exchange, a major component of utu, created reciprocal obligations on the parties involved and established permanent and personal relationships. Traditionally utu between individuals and groups tended to escalate. Just as feasts were likely to increase in grandeur as an exchange relationship developed over time, so could reciprocal acts of vengeance intensify. Utu was not necessarily applied to the author of the affront, but affected the whole group. Thus utu could be gained through a victory over a group where only the most tenuous of links connected the source of the affront with the target of the utu. Any deleterious external influence could weaken the psychological state of the individual or group, but utu could reassert control over the influences and restore self-esteem and social standing. Suicide could even reassert control by demonstrating that one had control over one's fate, and was a way of gaining utu against a spouse or relative where direct retaliation was not possible. Such indirect utu often featured within kin groups.

(Te Kākano Textbook (Ed. 2): 48;)

He mea peita anō hoki e ia, ā he utu tika tāna utu i tono ai mō āna mahi (TW 28/8/1875:170). / They were also painted by him and the price he asked was right for his work.

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See also utu ā-hāora

Synonyms: utu kaimahi, whakakaitoa, uto, rautupu, utu ā-tau, utunga, moni utu, paremata, homaitanga, hoatutanga, tauutuutu, ngakinga, whakarite, ngaki, rautipu


4. (noun) compensation, recompense, reparation.

Ka taea anō te whakarite tētahi utu mehemea kua pā tētahi tino mate ki ngā tāngata tika ki te whenua (RT 2013:99). / Compensation can be arranged if a serious problem has affected the people who have rights to the land.

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Synonyms: whakaea, paremata, moni whakaea

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