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)

Not to me, and I love learning these new words. Thanks! I'll have one to you tonight.

Well, I forgot...but tonight?

Any more entries? You don't have to know it, just make something up - the others have

OK, 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.

Wow, you got a lot of daffynitions this time. I'll select #7.

I'll try 5

#9

No. 1, please.

Since arnie hath spoken, I'll assume it's #1, but will vote for #10.

I'll try #7

10.

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.

Well, 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.

I'll try and be clearer about the results this time, Kalleh

A puku is

1. a stomach or belly

correctly 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!

I specifically didn't choose #1 because of our word "puke." I didn't think they'd be related, but they must be. Darn!

...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?!

Puku is also an African antelope. It's listed as "Near Threatened."

So...is puke related to "seppuku?"

Unlikely, 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.

From 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.

quote:

"Whaka" pronounced "fucker"

And what to they make of a dik-dik? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dik-dik

Hmmm, zmj knows Japanese. I'll ask him in a PM.

The 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.