alamea
Tongan
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Proto-Polynesian *talamea with irregular loss of /t/.[1] By surface analysis, (t)ala (“thorn, spike”) + mea (“light red/brown”), literally “[it has] light red/brown spikes [on it]”, referring to the venomous thornlike spines that cover its upper surface.
Noun
[edit]alamea
- starfish, specifically crown-of-thorns starfish (Acanthaster planci)
- Near-synonym: mangamangaʻātai
References
[edit]- ^ Ross Clark and Simon J. Greenhill, editors (2011), “TALA-MEA”, in “POLLEX-Online: The Polynesian Lexicon Project Online”, in Oceanic Linguistics, volume 50, number 2, pages 551–9
- Churchward, C. Maxwell (1959), “alamea”, in Tongan dictionary: Tongan-English and English-Tongan, London, England: Oxford University Press, →OCLC, page 5