Tiki

How to spell tiki

4 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce tiki

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does tiki mean?

1. nounA carved Polynesian figure representing an ancestor or god, or the tropical decorative style named after such carvings.

Tiki in a sentence

• A wooden tiki stood guard at the entrance to the bar.

• They decorated the patio with bamboo torches and a grinning tiki.

Where does tiki come from?

Language of origin: Other

The word comes from Maori and other Polynesian languages, where tiki refers to a carved humanlike figure that often represented an ancestor or a deity. In Maori tradition the name is also tied to Tiki, said in some accounts to be the first man, which is why the carved forms came to stand for ancestral figures. English speakers picked the word up in the nineteenth century as contact with New Zealand and the Pacific islands grew, first describing the greenstone neck pendants known as hei-tiki. During the twentieth century, and especially through American mid-century bar and restaurant culture, tiki broadened to label a whole decorative style of carved poles, torches, and tropical drinks. The spelling is mercifully phonetic, two simple syllables, so the trap is mostly remembering it is a real, fixed loanword rather than a coined brand name.

How the word is built

• tiki (whole word borrowed from Maori; not built from English prefixes or suffixes)