I was reading a children’s book about Passover yesterday that reminded me that “firstborn child” is an important concept in many cultures. In English we don’t have a special word for “firstborn child” (yes, I’m apparently a snob about compound words like “firstborn”!) but in Hawaiian the word is “hiapo.” Wehewehe doesn’t give a derivation, but it doesn’t seem to be any kind of compound or borrowed word.
#hwotd #hawaiianWordOfTheDay #firstborn