Red tī leaves
Au Kupu ʻŌu nā Te Kōpapa Reo Māori — new terms formulated by the Cook Islands Māori Language Commission

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Cook Islands Māori Terms

273 terms across 22 categories, transcribed from Kopapa Reo Maori New Terms and formulated by Te Kōpapa Reo Māori, the Cook Islands Māori Language Commission — which creates Māori words for things the language has not needed a word for before, such as iCloud, EFTPOS and Zoom meetings.

A pile of dried coconut fronds beside a track

How these words come about

Te Kōpapa Reo Māori sets out its own reasoning in the document these terms are drawn from:

Over the past years Te Kōpapa Reo Māori have received many requests from the public asking for Māori translations to certain English words. The Committee have made efforts to address those requests during their fortnightly meetings.

Not every word has to be built from nothing. The Committee works from the two Cook Islands Māori dictionaries — Jasper Buse's and Stephen Savage's — and often finds a word that already exists but has fallen out of everyday speech, and that fits the English of today exactly.

Their own example is bully. Ask a Cook Islands Māori speaker today for the Māori word and they would have a hard time answering. Yet Buse and Taringa's dictionary gives ʻakaʻaitoa — to play the hero, act tough, throw one's weight about. The word was never lost; it was only waiting. Three of the sentences below are the Committee's, showing it in use.

Example sentences