luaʻi
The Hawaiian phrase for 'throw up' is luaʻi.
luaʻi is used to describe the act of vomiting food or liquid from the stomach through the mouth.
Did you know?
- In traditional Hawaiian medicine called lāʻau lapaʻau, practitioners sometimes induced luaʻi as a purposeful clinical treatment to cleanse the body.
- The word luaʻi shares a distant linguistic ancestor with the Proto-Nuclear Polynesian root *lua, which has been used by seafaring peoples across the Pacific to describe the same biological process for millennia.
- The glottal stop ʻ in luaʻi is treated as a full consonant, meaning its omission would fundamentally change the word into a different term.
Examples in context
- Ua luaʻi ʻoe?Did you throw up?
Example conversation
Leilani is checking on Ikaika who looks ill.
- IkaikaLeilani, ua luaʻi au.Leilani, I threw up.
- LeilaniʻAe, e loaʻa ana kou ʻinoʻino.Yes, your sickness is showing.
- IkaikaE luaʻi ana hou paha au.I might throw up again.
- LeilaniE hele i ka bathroom, Ikaika.Go to the bathroom, Ikaika.
Sources
- Word origins: Wiktionary entries luaʻi, CC BY-SA 4.0.
