Meaning
Pau is a Hawaiian word meaning finished, ended, completed, gone, or all done, and it is also widely used in local Hawaiʻi English and Hawaiʻi Creole for being finished with an activity or for something being over.
How it is used
The Pukui-Elbert Hawaiian dictionary tradition records pau with senses such as finished, ended, through, completed, over and all done. University of Hawaiʻi Press historical research lists pau 'finished' among the Hawaiian loanwords most widely known and used in island English.
Examples
- “I’m pau with work for today.”
- “The food is pau already.”
Pronunciation
/pau/ · pow
Tone and register
Neutral, practical, and extremely ordinary in local contexts. Its grammatical behavior can differ between Hawaiian and local English constructions.
Visitor guidance
Keep the spelling distinct from other Hawaiian words that use ʻokina or kahakō, such as pāʻū. Do not erase Hawaiian origin by describing pau merely as Pidgin slang; local English and Hawaiʻi Creole borrowed the word from ʻōlelo Hawaiʻi.
Cultural context
Pau shows how Hawaiian vocabulary became embedded in everyday island English across communities. Its local-English life does not make the source language decorative: the same spelling belongs to a living Indigenous language with its own grammar and lexical system.
Places represented
Open the reviewed place guide for each regional sense carried by this canonical entry.