iteiwomo
- (n.) the full change of the moon (i.e. going from, for example, one new moon to another new moon)
Inivieke uomoko i iteiwomo.
“It’s a marvelous night for a full change of the moon.”
Notes: Heh, heh… Little multilingual pun there.
Unfortunately, I don’t think anyone but me will get it, because I just realized I haven’t done the word tei yet! Argh!
Anyway, if you break it down, iteiwomo means “moon dance”. Now hopefully fans of Van Morrison will get it.
Hey, today is a special day! Today marks the 365th post to the Kamakawi Word of the Day Blog! Despite adversity, I made it through a full year, with only one unfortunate break. Not a bad word for the anniversary, either.
See, the movement of the celestial bodies is conceptualized as a dance (at least for the calendrical system). The change of the moon from one phase to its opposite is conceptualized as a turn, and then the return to its original position is a dance.
In some ways, the iteiwomo is like a month in our calendar. However, an iteiwomo is not necessarily twenty eight days: an iteiwomo is an iteiwomo, no matter how long it takes. As such, it’s not a reliable enough metric to make reference to. Furthermore, it’s not thought of as comprising any number of days in a particular order. So from one new moon to the next is an iteiwomo, but so is the change from one waning crescent to another waning crescent.
This system, of course, does not hang together perfectly. To see the kluge that keeps it together, tune in tomorrow!