Hua Niu Photograph by Heidi Fickinger
niu
1. n. The coconut (Cocos nucifera), a common palm in tropical islands of the Pacific and warm parts of eastern Asia; coconut meat or oil. Hawaiians used all parts of the tree. (Neal 119–2l.) Coconut water and coconut cream (the white liquid squeezed front ripegrated coconuts) were both called wai niu and wai o ka niu. In For. 5:596 niu ā wali was translated ‘milk of the coconut’. Niu moe a Kala-pana, the supine coconut palm of Kala-pana. [Young trees were bent over and made to grow crookedly, in order to commemorate great events; two of such trees were at Kala-pana in 1950]. Ē niu, ē kūlolo, O coconut, O coconut pudding [said of one who talks too much; see niu kūlolo]. (PPN niu.)
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