Word of the Day · Archive
The Hawaiian word for September 9, 2026
Archive · September 9, 2026
HANOHANO
say it: hah-no-HAH-no
Glorious, honored, dignified, distinguished — and the honor, pomp, and glory itself.
What it means
Hanohano is given by Pukui and Elbert as: glorious, magnificent, noble, honored, stately, dignified, grand, distinguished, honorable, honorary — and, as a noun, honor, pomp, glory, prestige. One word covers both the quality and the thing itself.
It is a reduplication: hano doubled. Hawaiian does this often, and the doubling here does not weaken the word the way reduplication sometimes does. It settles it. Hanohano is not a flash of glory. It is a bearing that holds.
That is the part worth carrying. In English, “honored” is usually something done to you — someone hands it over. Hanohano runs both ways. It is what you are given and it is how you carry yourself, and Hawaiian does not bother splitting those into two different words.
How to use it
Hanohano is the word Hawaiian reaches for in formal address — it is how you title someone in a chamber or a ceremony. It also lives on as a causative, hoʻohanohano, which is the doing form: to honor somebody, or to carry yourself well.
Ka Mea Hanohano, ke Kiaʻāina
His Excellency, the Governor. Given directly in Pukui-Elbert under hanohano. Ka mea is the person or the one; hanohano is the standing they carry.
I ka mea hanohano, ka luna hoʻomalu
To the honorable speaker. The opening you would use addressing the chair of a body. Luna hoʻomalu is the one who presides.
hoʻohanohano
To honor, exalt, glorify — and also to conduct oneself with distinction. Both senses sit in the same entry. From it: medala hoʻohanohano, a medal for merit, and kekele hoʻohanohano, an honorary degree.
me ka hanohano
With distinction — as when graduating from a college or university. Listed in Māmaka Kaiao, the modern Hawaiian lexicon.
Why this word matters
September is Aloha Festivals season — the royal court, the pāʻū riders, the floral parade, the whole long month of Hawaiʻi dressing up and processing through its own streets. Hanohano is the word underneath all of it.
It is easy to read pageantry as decoration. The dictionary will not let you. Hanohano carries pomp and glory and prestige in the same breath as noble and dignified — the display and the substance in one entry, refusing to be separated. The regalia is not a costume over the honor. In this word it is the honor, made visible.
The dictionary puts pomp and dignity in the same word. It knows something English forgot.
There is a second thing hiding in hoʻohanohano. It means to honor someone else, and it means to conduct yourself with distinction, and Hawaiian saw no reason to give those separate words. Honoring is not a transaction you complete and set down. How you carry yourself is part of it. You cannot really do the first without doing the second.
The word is planted here too. Hanohano is the name of the site where Waipahu High School stands on Oʻahu — literally, majestic. A plantation town’s school, sitting on ground already named for dignity. Which is about right.
Sources
The definitions of hanohano — glorious, magnificent, noble, honored, stately, dignified, grand, distinguished, honorable, honorary; honor, pomp, glory, prestige — and the phrases Ka Mea Hanohano, ke Kiaʻāina, I ka mea hanohano, ka luna hoʻomalu, hoʻohanohano, medala hoʻohanohano and kekele hoʻohanohano are from the Hawaiian Dictionary (Pukui & Elbert, 1986), consulted via wehewehe.org and the UH Hilo Wehe²wiki² Hawaiian language dictionaries. Me ka hanohano (with distinction) is from Māmaka Kaiao (2003). The place name Hanohano, site of Waipahu High School on Oʻahu, literally “majestic,” is from Place Names of Hawaiʻi (Pukui, Elbert & Mookini, 1974), via the same source. Nothing on this page is invented; where a phrase could not be verified in a dictionary or an official source, it was left out.