Definitions
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun A
person of Hawaiian descent. - noun historical A South Pacific Islander, especially a labourer in Australia or Canada.
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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Also, at the moment of delivering each kick, he called the kanaka a black heathen.
South Sea Tales Jack London 1896
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Also, at the moment of delivering each kick, he called the kanaka a black heathen.
THE HEATHEN 2010
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Also, at the moment of delivering each kick, he called the kanaka a black heathen.
THE HEATHEN 2010
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I aku o Aiwohikupua i kona Kuhina, "Heaha keia e hoi ole mai nei na kanaka a kaua e hoouna aku nei?"
The Hawaiian Romance Of Laieikawai Martha Warren Beckwith 1915
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"What name you fella kanaka all the same pickaninny?"
YAH! YAH! YAH! 2010
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Without doubt I had seen him with the rest of the kanaka crew on board, but I had not consciously been aware of his existence, for the Petite Jeanne was rather overcrowded.
THE HEATHEN 2010
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Some time he made kanaka plenty cross along him and kanaka want 'm kill m, kanaka he think devil-devil and kanaka he hear that fella mate sing out, Yah!
YAH! YAH! YAH! 2010
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So I called to the kanaka to come to me, and proceeded to share the hatch cover with him.
THE HEATHEN 2010
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You fella kanaka just like 'm dog -- plenty fright along that fella trader.
YAH! YAH! YAH! 2010
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In addition to her eight or ten kanaka seamen, her white captain, mate, and supercargo, and her six cabin passengers, she sailed from Rangiroa with something like eighty-five deck passengers -- Paumotans and Tahitians, men, women, and children each with
THE HEATHEN 2010
chained_bear commented on the word kanaka
I like this description of spoken language, though I am not educated enough to comment on the veracity of the author's position:
"I had heard much of the liquid beauty of the Kanaka tongue. It was a surprise to find it the most unmusical and harshly gutteral language I had ever heard. It comes from the mouth in a series of explosive grunts and gibberings. The listener is distinctly and painfully impressed with the idea that if the nitroglycerine words were retained in the system, they would prove dangerous to health and is fearful lest they choke the spluttering Kanaka to death before he succeeds in biting them off and flinging them into the atmosphere."
--Walter Noble Burns, A Year with a Whaler, 18
April 28, 2008