Word
kai
Phoneticskai
/ˈkaɪ/
Definition
n. a word for food or a meal, used mostly in New Zealand.
n. food or sustenance; a term borrowed from Māori that is now common in New Zealand English and some Australian dialects.
Examples
“Kai! That was a huge wave.”
“The locals shouted 'Kai!' when they saw the size of the fish the young boy had caught.”
Examples
simple
“Kai! That was a huge wave.”
contextual
“The locals shouted 'Kai!' when they saw the size of the fish the young boy had caught.”
Usage
Uncountable in this sense.
Teaching tip
This is a regional term specific to New Zealand and parts of Australia. Outside of these areas, most English speakers will not understand it.
Etymology
Taken into regular use in the 1990s, with earlier popularity peaks in Scandinavia and Germany. The medieval Danish Kaj is possibly of Roman origin, Latinized as Caius, like the rare medieval English male given name Kay. The German Kai may also derive from a West Frisian pet form of Gerard, Cornelius, Nicholas, or Kampe "warrior". In the U.S. Kai has also been explained as Hawaiian kai (“sea”).
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.