Kāne
/ˈkaː.ne/noun
A Hawaiian word meaning man, male, or husband; Kāne is also the name of a major Hawaiian deity.
Did you know?In Hawaiian tradition, Kāne is one of the three major akua alongside Kū and Lono, and is associated with creation, sunlight, freshwater, and life.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Polynesian
Proto-Polynesian
*tāne
“Man, male, or husband; the reconstructed ancestral form of the Hawaiian word.”
Early Polynesian
Polynesian
tāne
“Man or male; the word appears across related Polynesian languages with regular sound changes.”
Pre-contact Hawaiʻi
Hawaiian
kāne
“Man, male, or husband; Hawaiian shifted the ancestral Polynesian t sound to k.”
Pre-contact Hawaiʻi
Hawaiian
Kāne
“The name of a principal Hawaiian akua, associated with creation, life, sunlight, and freshwater.”
Modern English
English
Kane
“An English-used spelling of the Hawaiian personal and divine name, usually written with the macron as Kāne in precise Hawaiian.”