Word of the Day · Archive
The Hawaiian word for October 23, 2026
Archive · October 23, 2026
KAULANA
say it: kow-LAH-nah
Famous, celebrated, well known: lā kaulana, a famous day or day of celebration.
What it means
Kaulana means famous, celebrated, renowned, well known. The Pukui-Elbert entry treats it as a stative, so it can describe a person, a place, or a day, and it can also name the fame itself. A second, quieter entry gives kaulana as a resting place or spot for setting something down, from kau (to place).
The causative form is hoʻokaulana: to make someone or something famous, or to spread the word about them. Older dictionaries also record the sense in sentences such as a kaulana aku i nā ʻāina ʻē, “to be renowned even to foreign lands.”
Say it with the stress on the middle syllable. The first syllable kau sounds like the English “cow”: kow-LAH-nah.
How to use it
The phrases below are documented on Wehewehe Wikiwiki, in the Pukui-Elbert dictionary or in the older Andrews and Parker dictionaries it carries.
Lā kaulana
“Famous day” — a day of celebration or festivity (Pukui-Elbert).
Hoʻokaulana
“To make famous” — to spread a report about a person or thing (Pukui-Elbert).
A kaulana aku i nā ʻāina ʻē
“To be renowned even to foreign lands” (Andrews, 1865; Parker, 1922).
Why this word matters
Yesterday the word was alakaʻi, the one who leads. Today, a Friday (Pōʻalima), we ask what a leader becomes known for: kaulana.
Fame is only a name. What it is attached to is what lasts.
The most famous use of the word in Hawaiian song is the title Kaulana Nā Pua, “Famous Are the Flowers.” Ellen Kehoʻohiwaokalani Wright Prendergast wrote it in 1893 for members of the Royal Hawaiian Band, who walked out rather than sign a loyalty oath to the Provisional Government after the overthrow of Queen Liliʻuokalani. The song is still sung today. Its fame belongs to people who stayed faithful to their land.
The place name works the same way. Kaulana, near Ka Lae on Hawaiʻi Island, is glossed in Place Names of Hawaiʻi as a landing, a place where a boat is set down. Fame and resting place come from one root, kau, to place.
At Digital Piko, we think of this word as a question to carry through the weekend. What do you want your name to be set down beside?
Sources
Kaulana — famous, celebrated, renowned; a resting place; lā kaulana and hoʻokaulana — are from the Pukui-Elbert dictionary (1986) entry on Wehewehe Wikiwiki (wehe.hilo.hawaii.edu). A kaulana aku i nā ʻāina ʻē is from the Andrews (1865) and Parker (1922) entries on the same site, and the place name Kaulana from Place Names of Hawaiʻi (1974). The history of Kaulana Nā Pua follows the Wikipedia article “Kaulana Nā Pua.” Pōʻalima, Friday, is standard Hawaiian usage.