Etymology

moa

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Today it means: Any of several species of large, extinct, flightless birds of the family Dinornithidae that were native to New Zealand; until its extinction, one species was the largest bird in the world. Full definition →

First used 19th c.Māori moa ← Proto-Polynesian *moa
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The story

  1. Proto-Polynesian · derived from*moa“fowl”
  2. Māori · borrowed frommoa
  3. English todaymoa

Borrowed from Māori moa, from Proto-Polynesian *moa (“fowl”).

First known use, by meaning

  • from 19th c. Any of several species of large, extinct, flightless birds of the family Dinornithidae that were native to New Zealand; until its extinction, one species was the largest bird in the world.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.