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| Credit: Depositphotos.com/Stephen Goodwin |
The Pacific ocean is a vast water highway, that surrounds our beautiful state, and some of the beaches are listed in the top ten almost every year! On that note, I’d like to present the word “kai” (pronounced "kye"), meaning sea water, seaside, tide, brackish water, etc. Kahakai (kah hah kye) is the Hawaiian word for beach, and of course, going to the beach is a must do event when you visit. If you’re ever on the island of O`ahu, I’d recommend the east side to see Kailua (kye loo ah) and Lanikai (lah nee kye) beaches. You won’t be disappointed, except for the crowds, during the weekends. Lol. You may even get to see a canoe race!!!
I have to share this story that relates to Kailua Beach. When I started my journey of learning the Hawaiian language, my professor asked what Kailua meant. Prior to this, I had known that the word “lua” (loo wah) was a toilet. So with most of us, not educated enough in Hawaiian, blurted out that Kailua meant “toilet water”!!! You should’ve seen the look on our teacher’s face. It looked like he bit a lemon, with one eye closed! Oops! He went on, explaining that “lua” meant "two"; hence, the word, Kailua, meant “two seas” or “two currents” because of the 2 lagoons or 2 currents in the town.
Another interesting story I was told, was that of Lanikai beach. In Hawaiian, the nouns are placed first, and followed by the adjective. Lani (lah nee) translates as “heaven”, and Kai (you should all know this word by now, since I repeated it over and over….lol) translates to “sea”. This tiny area was hailed as the “heavenly sea” and was mistakenly written as Lanikai, when it should’ve been named Kailani….. That is what my professor shared with us, and he has written a book called “Nā Wahi Pana O Ko’olau Poko”. Before I end this post, I do need to share with you the old name of Lanikai, which is Ka`ohao ( kah oh hah oh), meaning "joining together".
A hui hou,
Haunani
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