Etymology

popolo

P3O1P3O1L1O1

Today it means: black nightshade (Solanum nigrum). Full definition →

Hawaiian pōpolo ← Proto-Polynesian *polo
Ask AI about its historyChatGPTClaudePerplexityGoogle AIGrok

The story

  1. Proto-Polynesian · derived from*polo
  2. Hawaiian · borrowed frompōpolo
  3. English todaypopolo

Borrowed from Hawaiian pōpolo from Proto-Polynesian *polo; cognate with Māori poroporo and pōporo (Solanum aviculare), Tongan polo (“Solanum nigrum”) and Tuvaluan 'opolo (“capsicum”). Skin color meaning comes from analogy to the color of its berries.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.