Word of the Day · Archive
The Hawaiian word for September 22, 2026
Archive · September 22, 2026
LOKOMAIKAʻI
say it: LO-ko-my-KAH-ee
Good will, generosity, kindness of heart — the disposition, not just the act.
What it means
Lokomaikaʻi is built from two words standing next to each other: loko, the inside — one’s inner nature, disposition, feelings — and maikaʻi, good. Pukui and Elbert give the compound as a noun, verb, and stative in one entry: good will, good disposition, generosity, grace; kind, humane, gracious, benevolent, beneficent, obliging.
Andrews’ 1865 dictionary reads the same compound as a description of motion rather than a fixed trait: “to feel and act benevolently; to be kindly disposed towards one; to be favorable to one.” The inside moves toward good, and then the good moves outward — that is the whole shape of the word, sitting right in its two parts.
It is not a word for a single kind act. It names the disposition underneath repeated ones — the kind of person whose inside is already leaning good before the occasion for kindness even arrives.
How to use it
The dictionary record for lokomaikaʻi is short on invented phrasebook lines and long on how the word has actually been used — in a bill collector’s ledger and in scripture alike.
Nā lā o ka lokomaikaʻi
“Days of grace” — Pukui-Elbert’s own example, recorded in the plainest possible context: the time allotted for paying a bill. Even in a ledger, lokomaikaʻi is the word for the good will extended to you.
Loko + maikaʻi
The compound itself, per Andrews (1865): loko, disposition, and maikaʻi, good. Put together, literally an inside turned toward good — the etymology doubles as the definition.
Ka lokomaikaʻi o ke Akua
“The lovingkindness of God” — the phrase the 1872 Hawaiian Bible translation (Wehiwehi Baibala) reaches for when English scripture says grace or lovingkindness. It is the word Hawaiian chose to carry that entire theological weight.
Why this word matters
English splits this territory into several words that do not quite overlap — kindness, generosity, grace, good will — and none of them names the source all four are coming from. Lokomaikaʻi names the source. It is not the gift; it is the inside the gift came out of.
The compound is the definition: an inside turned toward good.
That the Hawaiian Bible reached for this exact word to translate grace — the free, unearned favor at the center of Christian theology — says something about how much weight the word was already built to carry before any missionary ever needed it. It was not stretched to fit; it was already there.
And the bill-collector’s example is worth sitting with precisely because it is so unglamorous. Lokomaikaʻi in Pukui-Elbert’s own illustration is not a grand gesture — it is a few extra days to pay what you owe. The word does not require an occasion. It is just the direction someone’s inside is already facing when the occasion for good will shows up, large or small.
Sources
Lokomaikaʻi — nvs., good will, good disposition, generosity, grace; kind, humane, gracious, benevolent, beneficent, obliging — together with the example nā lā o ka lokomaikaʻi (days of grace, of the time allotted for paying a bill), is from the Hawaiian Dictionary (Pukui & Elbert, 1986). The compound etymology (loko, disposition + maikaʻi, good) and the definition “to feel and act benevolently; to be kindly disposed towards one” are Andrews (1865), carried forward in Parker (1922) and Kent (1986). The scriptural usage ka lokomaikaʻi o ke Akua is Wehiwehi Baibala (1872). Pōʻalua, Tuesday, is Pukui-Elbert (1986). All entries consulted via Wehewehe Wikiwiki (wehe.hilo.hawaii.edu) and wehewehe.org.