Word of the Day · Archive
The Hawaiian word for October 9, 2026
Archive · October 9, 2026
MAKAMAE
say it: mah-kah-MAH-eh
Precious, of great value, highly prized — and, said of a person, darling.
What it means
Makamae means precious. Pukui and Elbert define it as “precious, of great value, highly prized, darling.” It is a stative verb — it describes a quality something has, the way nani describes beauty.
Andrews (1865) gives the fuller range: “precious; valuable; much desired; costly; precious, as a stone,” and also “precious, as a beloved child or servant.” As a noun he records it as “a darling; a precious one; a beloved one.” Parker (1922) repeats both senses.
Andrews also offers a guess at where the word comes from: maka plus mae, which he takes as short for maemae, “pure.” That is his nineteenth-century suggestion, not settled fact — Pukui and Elbert simply divide the word as maka.mae.
How to use it
Every phrase below is documented in the dictionary record on Wehewehe Wikiwiki.
Pōhaku makamae
“Precious stone” — listed in the Pukui-Elbert English–Hawaiian entry for stone. A jewel is, literally, a precious pōhaku.
Nā mea makamae
“Precious things” (Andrews, 1865, citing Ezekiel 22:25; also in Parker, 1922). Mea is “thing,” and nā makes it plural.
Makamae (of a person)
“Precious, as a beloved child or servant” and, as a noun, “a darling; a precious one; a beloved one” (Andrews, 1865). Pukui-Elbert keeps the sense in one word: darling.
Why this word matters
This week has been about giving. Makana was the gift. Hāʻawi was the act of giving it. Makamae is the reason any of it matters — the value we place on what is given, and on who it is given to.
The same word for a jewel is the word for a beloved child.
That is the part worth sitting with. In the old dictionaries, makamae covers a costly stone and a darling in the same breath. Hawaiian does not keep a separate, colder word for the things that are expensive. What is precious and who is precious share a name.
It is also a useful check. A lot of what gets called valuable is just costly. Makamae asks a slower question: what is truly highly prized — the jewel on the shelf, or the people in the house?
Today is Pōʻalima, Friday. Before the week closes out, tell someone who is makamae to you that they are.
Sources
Makamae — “precious, of great value, highly prized, darling” (stative verb, divided maka.mae) — is from the Hawaiian Dictionary (Pukui & Elbert, 1986). Pōhaku makamae, “precious stone,” is from the Pukui-Elbert English–Hawaiian entry for “stone.” “Precious; valuable; much desired; costly; precious, as a stone,” “precious, as a beloved child or servant,” na mea makamae (“precious things”), the noun sense “a darling; a precious one; a beloved one,” and the suggested derivation from maka + mae (for maemae, “pure”) are from Andrews (1865); Parker (1922) repeats these senses. Pōʻalima, Friday, is standard Hawaiian usage. All dictionary entries consulted via Wehewehe Wikiwiki (wehe.colo.hawaii.edu) and wehewehe.org.