Word of the Day · Archive
The Hawaiian word for August 23, 2026
Archive · August 23, 2026
PŌMAIKAʻI
say it: poh-my-KAH-ee
Good fortune, blessing, prosperity — and the person who has it. Built from pō, an intensifying prefix, + maikaʻi, good.
What it means
Pōmaikaʻi is good fortune. Pukui and Elbert give it a long run of English: good fortune, blessedness, blessing, profit, prosperity, good luck, welfare, benefits — and then the adjective side, prosperous, fortunate, beneficial, blessed, lucky. One word covering both the blessing and the state of being blessed.
The build is simple once you see it. Maikaʻi is good — well, fine, handsome, the word you say when someone asks how you are. Pō- in front of it is an intensifying prefix. Pōmaikaʻi is not merely good. It is good turned all the way up.
Note what the dictionary keeps in the same entry: blessing sits next to profit, prosperity next to improvement of property. Hawaiian does not split the spiritual from the practical here. A full water tank and a full table are pōmaikaʻi. So is a good year, a healed relationship, a safe return.
How to use it
Pōmaikaʻi is a word you hand to somebody else. Most of the documented uses are wishes, blessings, or a plain statement of gratitude.
E pili mau nā pōmaikaʻi me ʻoe
may good fortune always be with you. The blessing you close a letter with, or say to someone leaving. Note the plural nā pōmaikaʻi — blessings, not one blessing.
pōmaikaʻi au
blessed am I. Listed in the dictionary exactly that way. Short enough to actually use.
hoʻopōmaikaʻi
to bless; to ask a blessing. The hoʻo- prefix turns the state into an action, the way it does all over this language.
pōmaikaʻi ʻole
unfortunate, unlucky. ʻOle is the negation. Worth knowing so the good version has an edge to sit against.
Why this word matters
Sunday is Lāpule here, and whatever you do or do not do with the day, it is the one morning most people slow down enough to take stock. Pōmaikaʻi is the word for what you find when you do.
Blessing and profit live in the same dictionary entry. Hawaiian never asked you to choose between the two.
What we keep coming back to is the plural. Nā pōmaikaʻi — blessings, counted. Not one lucky break but the accumulated small ones: the rain that came when the tank was low, the truck that started, the person who showed up. That is closer to how a good year actually feels on this island. Nothing dramatic. A lot of things quietly going right.
And it is a word you give away. E pili mau nā pōmaikaʻi me ʻoe is not something you say about yourself. Like kōkua and mālama, pōmaikaʻi points outward — you wish it onto somebody, and it becomes real in the wishing.
So if you want one Hawaiian phrase to carry into the week, take that one. Say it to the person leaving your driveway. Our roots connect us.
Sources
The headword, the full run of definitions, the pō- intensifier on maikaʻi, and every phrase above — E pili mau nā pōmaikaʻi me ʻoe, pōmaikaʻi au, hoʻopōmaikaʻi, pōmaikaʻi ʻole — are from the Hawaiian Dictionary by Mary Kawena Pukui and Samuel H. Elbert, consulted through Nā Puke Wehewehe ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi (wehewehe.org) and the Wehewehe Wikiwiki dictionaries at UH Hilo. Pōmaikaʻi was also featured as a Hawaiian Word of the Week by the University of Hawaiʻi.