Etymology

totara

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Today it means: Podocarpus totara, a podocarp tree endemic to New Zealand. Full definition →

Māori tōtara ← Proto-Polynesian *tara ← Proto-Oceanic *tala
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The story

  1. Proto-Oceanic · derived from*tala
  2. Proto-Polynesian · derived from*tara“barb, prong”
  3. Māori · borrowed fromtōtara
  4. English todaytotara

Borrowed from Māori tōtara, from Proto-Polynesian *tara (“barb, prong”), from Proto-Oceanic *tala, referring to its mature leaves which resemble spines of the spot-fin porcupinefish (Diodon hystrix).

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.