mshefler
March 27th, 2007, 06:39 PM
Here are 18 fabulous definitions for mamihlapinatapai, one of which is real.
Vote for your two favorites no later than 9 AM EDT, Thursday, March 29.
Thursday is often a busy day for me, so don't be alarmed if I don't get around
to posting the results until late afternoon.
1. _Algon (pidgin)_ a young man dependent on his parents and unable or
unwilling to provide for himself. [lit., "one who still laps his
mother's milk in his father's house"]
2. fish wrapped in wet coconut fronds and baked in the coals of a
coconut shell fire.
3. a pathological belief that one is inhabited by an evil spirit.
4. a Polynesian feast and celebration that traditionally involves
drunkenness and wife-swapping.
5. grass and leaf thatch used as roofing on yurts and similar dwellings.
6. the Aztec calendar.
7. _Tahiti_ the white coconut.
8. _Hawaiian_ a species of trigger fish. [lit., "small fish with a pig's
face"]
9. a feeling on awakening that one should not have mixed ouzo with red
wine the previous evening.
10. _Tonga_ the grandmother of the King or Queen of Tonga.
11. _Maori_ the orange roughy, _Hoplostethus atlanticus_, a
bottom-dwelling fish of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans.
12. a rounded hill or protuberance.
13. a large sarong, apron or skirt [pidgin fr. the Gilbert and Ellis
Isles - lit. "the skirt of the woman with a large lap"]
14. a small single-masted coastal vessel, rigged either with square sails
or as a cutter or sloop.
15. _Yaghan_ a look shared by two people with each wishing that the
other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one
wants to start.
16. in Samoa, a sculpture representing a standing young woman usually
depicted as pregnant.
17. any large accumulation of candies or other sweets.
18. _Maori_ a stranger; a foreigner.
Vote for your two favorites no later than 9 AM EDT, Thursday, March 29.
Thursday is often a busy day for me, so don't be alarmed if I don't get around
to posting the results until late afternoon.
1. _Algon (pidgin)_ a young man dependent on his parents and unable or
unwilling to provide for himself. [lit., "one who still laps his
mother's milk in his father's house"]
2. fish wrapped in wet coconut fronds and baked in the coals of a
coconut shell fire.
3. a pathological belief that one is inhabited by an evil spirit.
4. a Polynesian feast and celebration that traditionally involves
drunkenness and wife-swapping.
5. grass and leaf thatch used as roofing on yurts and similar dwellings.
6. the Aztec calendar.
7. _Tahiti_ the white coconut.
8. _Hawaiian_ a species of trigger fish. [lit., "small fish with a pig's
face"]
9. a feeling on awakening that one should not have mixed ouzo with red
wine the previous evening.
10. _Tonga_ the grandmother of the King or Queen of Tonga.
11. _Maori_ the orange roughy, _Hoplostethus atlanticus_, a
bottom-dwelling fish of the Atlantic and Indo-Pacific Oceans.
12. a rounded hill or protuberance.
13. a large sarong, apron or skirt [pidgin fr. the Gilbert and Ellis
Isles - lit. "the skirt of the woman with a large lap"]
14. a small single-masted coastal vessel, rigged either with square sails
or as a cutter or sloop.
15. _Yaghan_ a look shared by two people with each wishing that the
other will initiate something that both desire but which neither one
wants to start.
16. in Samoa, a sculpture representing a standing young woman usually
depicted as pregnant.
17. any large accumulation of candies or other sweets.
18. _Maori_ a stranger; a foreigner.