Te Mära Reo

Te Mära Reo ~ The Language Garden

PROTO-POLYNESIAN ETYMOLOGIES

*Futu

The tree Barringtonia asiatica and related species (Lechythidaceae).

From PROTO-AUSTRONESIAN *butun through Proto-Oceanic *putu.

NOTE - THIS PROTO-PAGE IS STILL IN THE EARLY STAGES OF CONSTRUCTION!

This is a word that has been carried throughout Austronesia with little change in form or meaning -- Barringtonia asiatica is called Boton (= Butun) in Tagalog and most Philippine languages (Vuton in Batanes Islands, the closest point to Taiwan from where the word was dispersed) and Futu or Hutu in the Polynesian languages wherever it is found. The Barringtonia tree is not native to Hawaii or Aotearoa, and its Austronesian name is not found in Hawaiian, but it was carried to Aotearoa and applied to an apparently quite different tree, but also formed part of a new name originating in the Cook Islands, for the pöhutukawa, which does have flowers and a shape reminiscent of the original *futu, and, like the Barringtonia, is a prominent shoreline tree.

Tongan: Futu (Barringtonia asiatica)
Niuean: Futu (B. asiatica)
Samoan: Futu (Barringtonia sp.)
Tahitian: Hutu (B. asiatica)
Marquesan: Hutu (Barringtonia sp.)
Tuamotuan: Hutu (Barringtonia sp.)
Rarotongan: 'utu (B. asiatica)
Maori: Hutu (Ascarina lucida), Hutukawa (Metrosideros excelsa)

Related Words Pöhutukawa

In the Philippines and other parts of Southeast Asia and the Pacific the Barringtonia is a characteristic tree of swanp and coastal forests. Its fruit floats on water, and, as with the mangrove, the sea is a major means of its distribution. The seed is also ground up into a powder used to immobilize or kill fish (all parts of the plant carry a powerful toxic glucoside). From a distance, Barringtonia in bloom would look very like a white-blossomed pohutukawa, so it is not hard to imagine why the old name was reapplied in the combinations hutukawa and pöhutukawa. (See the further discussion of the "new" uses of reflexes of *futu in the page for * pöhutukawa.)

*Futu-flower [Barringtonia asiatica flower.]

*Futu [Barringtonia asiatica tree.]

Sources of photographs: http://www.ubcbotanicalgarden.org/potd/barringtonia_asiatica.jpg (flower); http://pics.davesgarden.com/pics/htop_1202740256_616.jpg Barringtonia asiatica (tree)

Te Mära Reo, c/o Benton Family Trust, "Tumanako", RD 1, Taupiri, Waikato 3791, Aotearoa / New Zealand

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 New Zealand License.