Haole Date Friday, April 19, 2024 - 09:06 PM PST Topic Religion As I’ve mentioned before, Hawaiian words often have many more meanings than the literal translations. You should read my article on Kapu if you’d like another example. It’s always interesting how languages with a smaller vocabulary usually have more depth to the meaning of each word. One word that every Caucasian should know is the word Haole. Haole is most commonly pronounced “howlee”, although you may be able to escape some damage if you pronounce it correctly (howleh) in some situations. The correct plural of Haole is Haole, but most people add the English plural suffix and use Haoles (Howleeze) instead. I’ll start with the most important usage of the word. If you are a Caucasian visiting Hawaii, this is the only meaning you really need to be aware of but it is probably the most important thing you should know before visiting. If you hear the words “Fucking Haole” spoken by a large brown man who is looking you in the eye, the literal translation in this context is “Run like hell and don’t look back”. The subtler connotations are that you are about to experience a severe beating for reasons you are better off being far away from than trying to understand. Getting mad or asking why wastes valuable running time. Although “Run Like Hell” is the most common modern usage of the word, it of course has other meanings. Most languages and subcultures have an equivalent, but most don’t have such colorful roots. Gringo, Gaijin, Honky, Cracker, Normals, goyim, round-eye, infidel, and many other words in other languages all refer to people who “ain’t from around these parts”. More specifically, white people from elsewhere, or from a different culture or subculture. It is generally accepted that the opposite of Haole is “Kamaaina” (pronounced COMma-EYE-nah – meaning “of the land”). The interesting part about that is that unlike words for natives in other countries and cultures, it’s not used to refer only to people who were born in Hawaii. A Kamaaina is someone who belongs there because they understand and fit well with the vibe – not because they have some genetic right to be there or because their skin is brown. If Haole meant the same thing as Gaijin or Foreigner, the opposite would be Kamaka Maoli (pronounced ka-MA-ka MA-oly – meaning “the true people from here”). What you should be wondering right now is this: Up until 1778, Hawaiians had never seen white folks – Ever. They had also never seen anyone from outside of the Hawaiian Islands. As far as they were concerned, Hawaii was the entire world. This might as well have been true considering how far they would have to sail to reach even the Johnston Atoll – much less the populated places like the Marshall Islands or the Marquesas and Tahiti. They just didn’t have the technology – or they weren’t stupid enough to use the technology they did have. They trusted Kanaloa but not that much. Their Tahitian, Samoan and Tongan neighbors never dropped by for a visit either. Probably because the last time Tahitians tried to sail north, they found and settled Hawaii, and couldn’t send a message home telling everyone that they were all right. So if they had never seen a foreigner, why would they have a word like Haole just waiting around for a use? Back then, everyone was Kamaka Maoli. Every person alive was a Kamaaina as far as they knew. But as you know, the Hawaiians have quite a pantheon of Gods, and there are ghosts absolutely everywhere over there. Not every person is alive. That’s right, the word Haole literally translates to “those who do not breathe”. It was used literally to refer to a dead person or a god, but it was also used figuratively for the spiritually dead. In English, this would cover the dead, God/Gods, ghosts, zombies, possibly vampires, fictional characters, corporations, and any other non-human or soulless entity. So how did the usage of the word go from referring to a non-living or soul-less person to meaning “foreigner”? When Captain James Cook of the HMS Resolution landed at Kealakekua bay on the Big Island of Hawaii during the Lono i ka makahiki (the annual feast for the god Lono), they assumed that Cook was Lono. Lono had left the islands years earlier promising to return to that spot at that time of year on a floating island (resembling Cook’s ship). It was natural for them to assume that Cook was Lono. The people that were with him were as white as he was and since the Hawaiians had never seen anyone that white, they assumed that the only way to be that white was to not breathe. It was natural for them to use the literal meaning of the word to refer to Cook and the Haoles. Once most of the population started dying of VD (which they had no immunity to) and the Hawaiians realized that these were just white people, and not spirits and gods, the figurative meaning was more appropriate and has stuck to this day. One of the great ironic jokes the Hawaiians of that time played was teaching their kids to refer to people who were not Kamaaina (“of the land” or “on the vibe”) as Haole (“The Soulless”). Most of the current generation is not even aware of the original meaning of the word, and probably none of the Haoles know exactly what they are being called. They could have just referred to them as “not of the land” or “not the true people” but using the word Haole and all it implies is just so much more fitting. The more time I spend on the mainland in the company of Haoles, the more appropriate this choice of words becomes. This should prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Hawaiians are in fact goth as fuck, and there’s more than one way to be a Haole. This article comes from Shmeng http://www.shmeng.com/ The URL for this story is: http://www.shmeng.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=479