lavalava

See also: lava-lava

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Samoan lava-lava.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ɑːvə

Noun

lavalava (plural lavalavas or lavalava)

1. An everyday item of clothing traditionally worn by Polynesians and other Oceanic peoples, consisting of a single rectangular cloth worn as a skirt, secured around the waist by an overhand knotting of the upper corners.
   • 1997, Michel Picard, Robert Everett Wood, Tourism, ethnicity, and the state in Asian and Pacific societies:

     Some tourists buy Samoan identity merchandise as novelties, but most prefer sloganless items such as printed lavalavas.

   • 2001, David Sedaris, diary entry January 22, in Theft by Finding, Back Bay Books 2017, p. 436:

     The guy she went out with was named Ziki Fuapopo, and the story she told involved his mother, a pile of cocaine, and a group of men dressed in lavalavas.

Samoan

Noun

lavalava

1. Alternative form of lava-lava