The Ipu: Versatile Ancient Words

Aloha,

This week, I took my son to school. Each day, there is a question on the whiteboard. Today's question was, “How many pumpkins and gourds are on the table?” Just outsied was a table that had pumpkins and gourds on it. Given that my son can't read yet, I started to explain the question to him in Hawaiian. As I finished, I started to chuckle. In Hawaiian, a pumpkin and a gourd share the same word, ipu. I shared this linguistic quirk with a Spanish-speaking mother beside me, and she joined in the laughter, saying, “It's the same for us in Spanish – ‘Calabaza’.”

Now, let's dive into the word ipu. It's the term for any gourd-like fruit, but we also use it in conjunction with other words to differentiate between various things. For example:

Ipu—bottle gourd

Ipu haole—watermelon Lit., foreign gourd

Ipu ala—cantaloupe melon

Beyond fruits with gourd-like qualities, the word ipu has found its way into many innovations that arrived in Hawaii over time. These innovations were assigned this word for a couple of reasons. Firstly, they looked like an ipu. Secondly, these innovations were used similarly to how Hawaiians did. For instance:

Ipu heke—gourd drum with a top section (heke)

Ipu kukui—lamp

Ipu holoi (lima)—washbasin, sink

Ipu kuha—spittoon

Repurposing words is as old as the Hawaiian language itself. It serves as a common mechanism through which traditional Hawaiian words find their place in the modern world, alongside its many innovations.

Years after learning about this, I wondered what the Hawaiian term for a “gas station” would be. I mulled it over, considering options like "hale hoopiha kakalina," loosely translating to “a structure where you can fill up with gas.” I took to the old newspapers, not thinking I'd have much hope of success. To my surprise, I found both “hale hoopiha kakalina” and “hale kakalina” – a shorter version for "gas station."

My intention in sharing this is to inspire your awareness of how Hawaiian words are created. This practice will undoubtedly enhance your understanding of the Hawaiian language's perspective. Embracing this allows you to use Hawaiian through an authentic Hawaiian perspective.

Have you encountered similar words to ipu that have been adapted for today's use? Share with me.

Mahalo,

Malu