tūtū wahine
The Hawaiian word for grandmother is tūtū wahine.
tūtū wahine is a noun used to refer to the mother of someone's parent.
Meaning: mother of someone's parent (noun)
What does it mean word for word?
The term is composed of tūtū, which is a term for a grandparent or elder and wahine, meaning woman.
Which one should you use?
To specify a grandfather, you would replace wahine (woman) with kāne (man) to form tūtū kāne.
Is there a formal and an informal way to say it?
The shortened form tūtū is used in informal settings, such as casual conversation or when addressing a grandmother directly.
Did you know?
- The linguistic ancestor of wahine is the Proto-Austronesian word *bahi, which is part of a massive language family shared by many Pacific and Southeast Asian languages.
- In traditional Hawaiian culture, the role of the tūtū wahine was central to passing down oral histories and genealogy, known as moʻokūʻauhau, to the youngest generation.
- Because Hawaiian kinship terms are often broad, tūtū can be used to address a great-grandmother or a great-great-grandmother without adding extra modifiers.
Examples in context
- E komo mai, Tūtū!Welcome, Grandma!
- He tūtū wahine kēia.This is a grandmother.
- Maikaʻi ka tūtū wahine.The grandmother is good.
- Nānā i ka tūtū wahine.Look at the grandmother.
Example conversation
Kiana and Ikaika are looking at an old family photo.
- KianaʻO wai kēia tūtū wahine?Who is this grandmother?
- IkaikaʻO ia ka tūtū wahine o ka ʻohana.She is the grandmother of the family.
- KianaHe nani loa ʻo ia.She is very beautiful.
- IkaikaʻAe, he nani loa ia.Yes, she is very beautiful.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries wahine, CC BY-SA 4.0.
