Definition of "uku"

[Glen Miyashiro]

Re: Definition of "uku"

originally it was "ku ka paila" (Hawaiian transliteration of "pile", and was used like "big the pile") to whit: "ku ka paila rubbish in his backyard!" which evolved into "uku pile of rubbish in his backyard!" because along the way people are forgetting the Hawaiian base in that phrase (which is a Hawaiian base of borrowed English words).

Aha! Mahalo for the etymology. I love that kind of stuff.

[damontucker]

Re: Definition of "uku"

We are battling the first case of uku's in our house. I napalmed the whole place till it glowed green at night, did 17 loads of laundry, vacuumed 3 times, scoured the floors, and spent over 4 hours "combing". All in the last 36 hours.

What a nightmare.

Yeah... just wait till it hits the whole football team your coaching!

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: Definition of "uku"

Wondering, then, how "uku" got its pidgin meaning of "lots of...", as in "uku pile X" or "uku billion X"?

originally it was "ku ka paila" (Hawaiian transliteration of "pile", and was used like "big the pile") to whit: "ku ka paila rubbish in his backyard!" which evolved into "uku pile of rubbish in his backyard!" because along the way people are forgetting the Hawaiian base in that phrase (which is a Hawaiian base of borrowed English words).

[Peshkwe]

Re: Definition of "uku"

Now that it's getting close to Halloween, the good kind of black lights (tube floresent not the painted light bulbs) are easier to find.

If you have little kids pick one up. If the kid gets lice and you aren't sure you got em all...or it's in the class and you aren't sure if they caught the lice, using the black light in a dark room will help you find out. The live nits glow, dead ones stay dark under floresent black light.

http://www.drgreene.com/21_576.html

[Adri]

Re: Definition of "uku"

Do any of you remember a public health film showed in schools here many many moons ago where they were trying to de~stigmatize having ukus while telling people how to hopefully avoid getting ukus and how to treat them if you did get them? The film made us laugh. They had a mainland haole family talking about lice in such an upbeat and happy way as if they were happy and proud to have ukus. Something like, "Guess what? I have lice!" (spoken by a happy smiling child to a happy smiling adult).

[WindwardOahuRN]

Re: Definition of "uku"

We are battling the first case of uku's in our house. I napalmed the whole place till it glowed green at night, did 17 loads of laundry, vacuumed 3 times, scoured the floors, and spent over 4 hours "combing". All in the last 36 hours.

What a nightmare.

ACCCKKKK!

I remember vividly the time I got a notice from one of my daughter's teachers in NY. A notification of "lice detection."

BOIL BOIL BOIL.

My daughter was in a class of 28 kids. 26 had head lice. She was one of the two who never got it.

I stripped the kid the minute she came in the door. Washed her clothes in hot water and PineSol. She stunk like a state park bathroom. Although she has never mentioned any freaky after-effects I am pretty damn sure than she shared this with a therapist later in life.

Stripped the beds nightly, washed the linens in bleach and boiling hot water, drowned the beloved stuffed animals in bleach. Yes, they looked strange, but they retained their status as beloved stuffed animals. Vacuum, vacuum, spraying the carpet with Lysol as I vacuumed.

Scrubbed her and washed her hair nightly. The key element, according to those in the know, was to BLOW DRY the hair, with the blow dryer on "HIGH HOT BURN THE SCALP OFF THE KID."

It worked.

Please do not ask me about pinworms.

[WindwardOahuRN]

Re: Definition of "uku"

Nurses. How can you not love nurses?

Perhaps you should discuss this topic with the nurses at Wilcox...

[timkona]

Re: Definition of "uku"

We are battling the first case of uku's in our house. I napalmed the whole place till it glowed green at night, did 17 loads of laundry, vacuumed 3 times, scoured the floors, and spent over 4 hours "combing". All in the last 36 hours.

What a nightmare.

[lavagal]

Re: Definition of "uku"

Certainly no expert here on possible interpretations of the word but the only "uku" I am familiar with are the ones I kill and comb out of the heads of patients on a far-too-frequent basis.
Have I told you lately how much I love my job?

Nurses. How can you not love nurses?

[WindwardOahuRN]

Re: Definition of "uku"

Certainly no expert here on possible interpretations of the word but the only "uku" I am familiar with are the ones I kill and comb out of the heads of patients on a far-too-frequent basis.
Have I told you lately how much I love my job?

[Adri]

Re: Definition of "uku"

I've heard "uku million". I wonder if it's because there are usually a lot of lice, if one has lice or if it's because lice (or fleas) move/jump quickly so it looks like there are a lot of them.

My friend swears that her usage of "uku" is used in Nanakuli/Waianae and possibly Kalihi but so far no one else I've asked seems familiar with "tita kine uku".

[Keith H.]

Re: Definition of "uku"

In the hawaiian dictionary by Mary Kawena Puku'i & Samuel H. Elbert defines the word uku as: pay, payment, wages, fee, fare, toll, commission, reward, compensation, remittance, tuition, prize, fine, tax, installment, tribute; to pay, remunerate, compensate, repay, and revenge.

'uku in the hawaiian dictionary means louse, flea. small, tiny

Wondering, then, how "uku" got its pidgin meaning of "lots of...", as in "uku pile X" or "uku billion X"?

[achow]

Re: Definition of "uku"

In the hawaiian dictionary by Mary Kawena Puku'i & Samuel H. Elbert defines the word uku as: pay, payment, wages, fee, fare, toll, commission, reward, compensation, remittance, tuition, prize, fine, tax, installment, tribute; to pay, remunerate, compensate, repay, and revenge.

'uku in the hawaiian dictionary means louse, flea. small, tiny

[Pua'i Mana'o]

Re: Definition of "uku"

I don't profess to have any knowledge of the Hawaiian language, but to me, the word "uku" is that barbed seed that stick to your clothes when you walk in the bushes. Now, where did I get that ???

You mean "kuku" (it is a pain to get kuku off of your pants after running through the weeds, and it is painful when you step on a kuku barefoot and your mom had to pull it off!!!)

plenty of kuku traumas in my childhood!

[Palama Kid]

Re: Definition of "uku"

I don't profess to have any knowledge of the Hawaiian language, but to me, the word "uku" is that barbed seed that stick to your clothes when you walk in the bushes. Now, where did I get that ???

Is it because these seeds "jump" on you like lice?