aituā

1. (verb) (-tia) to have a mishap, have a disaster, have an accident.

He aha i aituā pēnei ai? (HP 1991:21) / Why did I have an accident like this?

2. (modifier) ill-fated, disastrous, calamitous, fateful, unlucky, unfortunate, accidental.

Nō te tākiritanga o tana taha ka oho ake; mōhio tonu he tohu aituā (NIT 1995:313). / When his side twitched he woke up, knowing immediately that it was a bad omen.

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3. (noun) ill omen, trouble, tragedy, calamity, disaster, catastrophe, accident, fatality, misfortune, injustice, death - although often used in modern Māori to mean 'accident', the term traditionally implied that there were reasons for the calamity, including violation of tapu, of mākutu, or some other disturbance of the natural order.

(Te Māhuri Textbook (Ed. 2): 75-96, 140-153;)

He aituā, engari kua poropititia e ētahi o ngā hīnātore, ka pau i te ahi i taua wā (HP 1991:6). / It was a disaster but it had been prophesied by some of the wise men that it would be destroyed by fire at that time.

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Aituā

1. (personal name) atua of disaster and death, fate - according to some narratives, he was the second son of Rangi-nui and Papa-tū-ā-nuku who joined Ioio-whenua when his father banished him to Whiti-ānaunau.

(Te Māhuri Study Guide (Ed. 1): 40-42;)

Ki ngā iwi, ki ngā hapū, me ngā mana e pupuri mai nei i te mana Māori, i ngā marae o Aotearoa me Te Waipounamu, tēnā rā koutou, ngā mōrehu a Aituā, tūāhuatanga o ēnā o ō tātou rangatira ka riro rā ki Paerau, ki te huinga o te kahurangi, ki te takotoranga tē taea te whakakorikori (TP 8/1912:7). / To the tribes, subtribes and the people of standing retaining Māori status on the marae of the North and South Islands, greetings to you all, who are the survivors of misfortune and stand in place of our leaders who have departed to the meeting place of the dead, to the gathering of the illustrious, to the resting place from which you are not able to move.

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