Etymology

hapua

H4A1P3U1A1

Today it means: a river-mouth lagoon, chiefly in New Zealand, formed at the interface between a braided river and a mixed sand and gravel beach deposited and extended by longshore drift. Full definition →

Māori hāpua
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The story

  1. Māori · borrowed fromhāpua“be hollow, depressed like a valley, be hollowed out, scooped out”
  2. English todayhapua

Borrowed from Māori hāpua (“be hollow, depressed like a valley, be hollowed out, scooped out”).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.