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Bluffing game: puku
April 01, 2010, 21:36
stellaBluffing game: puku
Though I have a suspicion that our regional oddities are now quite widely known, I’ll throw another into the mix as something to do if you have nothing better over the Easter break.
What is a
puku? (rhymes with cuckoo)
April 02, 2010, 19:28
KallehNot to me, and I love learning these new words. Thanks! I'll have one to you tonight.
April 05, 2010, 20:34
KallehWell, I forgot...but tonight?
April 06, 2010, 13:19
stellaAny more entries? You don't have to know it, just make something up - the others have
April 09, 2010, 17:30
stellaOK, for your amusement here are the choices - please claim one
A puku is
1. a stomach or belly
2. a terrestrial parrot
3. a very large member of the skink family of lizards
4. a condiment made from kiwi fruit and eucalyptus leaves
5. leggings worn by Aussie troops during World War Two
6. vomit
7. a large, ocean-going Maori canoe
8. a flexible wand toy with a long "fabric tail" that is irresistible to cats
9. a ceremonial dagger
10. a termite hill that has been constructed around a tree so that the tree appears to be growing out of the hill.
April 09, 2010, 20:53
KallehWow, you got a lot of daffynitions this time. I'll select #7.
April 10, 2010, 04:42
BobHaleI'll try 5
"No man but a blockhead ever wrote except for money." Samuel Johnson.
April 10, 2010, 05:29
<Proofreader>#9
April 10, 2010, 05:55
arnieNo. 1, please.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
April 10, 2010, 06:01
GeoffSince arnie hath spoken, I'll assume it's #1, but will vote for #10.
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
April 10, 2010, 09:01
bethree5I'll try #7
April 10, 2010, 09:03
tinman10.
April 10, 2010, 09:10
<Proofreader>I'm inclined to believe the real meaning is not included. I think it's an obscene expression spoken by a person with a harelip.
April 10, 2010, 17:19
stellaWell, as you may already know, there are words much closer to that than puku which has two long oo sounds. "Whaka" pronounced "fucker" is a prefix in dozens of Maori place names and words (whakapapa - genealogy) to the interminable delight of tourists and children.
April 10, 2010, 17:47
stellaI'll try and be clearer about the results this time, Kalleh
A puku is
1.
a stomach or bellycorrectly
guessed picked by
arnie puku is in common usage in NZ particularly in reference to the rounder type of tummy -
pukunui means "a very round tummy" (also "greedy").
Geoff suggestions were wisely avoided by everyone
2. a terrestrial parrot
3. a very large member of the skink family of lizards
proof made three suggestions, one of which (the soldiers' leggings) attracted
Bob 4. a condiment made from kiwi fruit and eucalyptus leaves
5. leggings worn by Aussie troops during World War Two
6. vomit
arnie cunningly suggested
7. a large, ocean-going Maori canoe
and paddled off with two
wahine,
Kalleh & Bethree , but the others all knew that that is not in fact a "puku" but a "waka" (wocker)
Kalleh's toy wand was sadly irresistible to no-one
8. a flexible wand toy with a long "fabric tail" that is irresistible to cats
Bob takes the honours, scoring a triple -
proof, Geoff & tinman - with his double
9. a ceremonial dagger
10. a termite hill that has been constructed around a tree so that the tree appears to be growing out of the hill.
Thanks for playing!
April 10, 2010, 19:27
KallehI specifically didn't choose #1 because of our word "puke." I didn't think they'd be related, but they must be. Darn!
April 12, 2010, 20:58
haberdasher...didn't come across this in time to play, but I'd have looked for something related to "seppuku" - akin to hara-kiri, the ritual disemboweling that is the only way sometimes for a Nipponese who feels he has lost face to regain some measure of worthiness. Which would have led to pick #1.
Isn't hindsight wonderful?!
April 12, 2010, 21:43
tinman Puku is also an African antelope. It's listed as "
Near Threatened."
April 13, 2010, 19:23
KallehSo...is puke related to "seppuku?"
April 14, 2010, 01:25
arnieUnlikely, I'd say. English is an Indo-European language, whereas Japanese is Asian. "Vomit" and "ritual disembowelling" don't really have much in common.
I don't know Japanese but I suppose it is possible that the "puk" part of "seppuku" could mean "belly"; if so it might show a connection between the Maori language and Japanese.
Build a man a fire and he's warm for a day. Set a man on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
April 14, 2010, 04:20
haberdasherFrom dictionary.com, with the equivalent in many other places:
quote:
seppuku definition
sep·puku (se po̵̅o̅′ko̵̅o̅)
noun
hara-kiri
Etymology: Jpn < SinoJpn setsu, cut + huku, belly
Webster's New World College Dictionary Copyright © 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio.
Used by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
I don't know how many of those other places are self- or cyclically-self-referential.
April 14, 2010, 18:19
Geoffquote:
"Whaka" pronounced "fucker"
And what to they make of a dik-dik?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dik-dik
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. -J. Krishnamurti
April 14, 2010, 19:08
KallehHmmm, zmj knows Japanese. I'll ask him in a PM.
April 15, 2010, 05:42
zmježdThe etymology provided looks good:
seppuku 切腹 (せっぷく) 'cut' + 'belly' and
harakiri 腹切 (はらきり) 'belly' + 'cut'. Each Japanese character (kanji) has at least two pronunciations. The character in common in the two words are prounounced
setsu 'cut' (onyomi, Chinese pronunciation) and
kiri (kunyomi, Japanese pronunciation). The word used in seppuku for 'belly' is actually
huku, but sometimes in compounds the the 'h' retains its earliuer value of
p (cf. nihon and nippon, the names of the country Japan). The etymology for English
puke is uncertain, but I doubt it came from Japanese. Puke is used as early as Shakespeare, and somebody with access to the OED online can probably see that seppuku is a much later addition to English. I'd guess 19th century.
—Ceci n'est pas un seing.