low_delta

kiwi (KEE-wee) - n., any of a small genus (Apteryx) of flightless New Zealand birds with rudimentary wings and a long slender bill; (informal, often capitalized) a New Zealander; (military) a member of an air force that doesn't fly; the egg-sized, edible berry of the Chinese gooseberry, with fuzzy brownish skin and slightly tart green flesh; a green-yellow color, like that of kiwi fruit flesh.



Thanks, WikiMedia!

Okay, back to solid Polynesian—for Maori is very much a Polynesian language. [Sidebar: New Zealand was the last significant territory to be settled in the Polynesian Expansion, over 300 years after Easter Island and Hawaii.] Bird first: there are five species of kiwi, all about the size of a chicken and nocturnal and shy, thus the rather dark pic. While the Maori name has possible cognates in other Polynesian languages, including a couple that are birds native to islands Maori ancestors had come from, the general consensus is the name is onomatopoetic of the male kiwi's call. The kiwi fruits (several species of genus Actinidia, esp. A. chinensis var. deliciosa) on the other hand, is not native, but introduced from central China in the early 20th century and cultivated for export. The rebranding from Chinese gooseberry, based on both being brown, furry, and round, happened in 1959 to make them more export-friendly, and has been so successful that the most common name in Chinese has become the transliteration qíyìguǒ (奇異果, literally exotic/strange fruit).

---L.