What is the English translation of the Maori word Haumaru?

Answer 1

Hau generally means "wind" (Winks 1953 Polynesian Journal lists eleven meanings based on wind) whereas maru has a meaning approximate to "shadow" or a "shade" of some kind. The latter probably derives from the ancient marae on Rarotonga called 'Te Maru o te Tahiti" (Buck c1927; Duff c1967; Bellwood c1975 et al) in which the original ancestors from Tahiti claimed they dragged the 'maru' or shadow of their homeland with them on their waka. So by wetewete or pulling apart and then recombining the two kupu (words) as if in a compound word structure, their approximate combined meanings range from "windy shadows" (rather than "shadowy winds" which doesn't make sense) to the "winds of Maru' (with Maru personified). Hauraki Maori have an ancestor named Marutuahu for example which means the "shadow of the altar".