Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A white person. Sometimes used disparagingly.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun Hawaii A non-Hawaiian, usually specifically a Caucasian.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Hawaiian, foreign, foreigner.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From the Hawaiian haole.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word haole.

Examples

  • Thus the word haole has very negative connotations.

    WeLove-music 2008

  • Sam Slom, a Bank of Hawaii economist then, who is now a Republican state senator in Hawaii, recalls that as a part of the white - or "haole" - minority in Hawaii, he would regularly see housing ads that made no effort to hide racial preferences.

    Madelyn Dunham; American Mentor 2008

  • [331] Old eds, "haole" -- The construction is not plain without a reference to the original: --

    The Works of Christopher Marlowe, Vol. 3 (of 3) Christopher Marlowe 1578

  • There were native Hawaiians, Japanese, Filipinos, Samoans, Okinawans, Chinese, and Portuguese, along with Anglos, commonly known as haole pronounced “howl-lay” and a smaller population of blacks, traditionally centered at the U.S. military installations.

    Into the Story DAVID MARANISS 2010

  • There were native Hawaiians, Japanese, Filipinos, Samoans, Okinawans, Chinese, and Portuguese, along with Anglos, commonly known as haole pronounced “howl-lay” and a smaller population of blacks, traditionally centered at the U.S. military installations.

    Into the Story DAVID MARANISS 2010

  • There were native Hawaiians, Japanese, Filipinos, Samoans, Okinawans, Chinese, and Portuguese, along with Anglos, commonly known as haole pronounced “howl-lay” and a smaller population of blacks, traditionally centered at the U.S. military installations.

    Into the Story DAVID MARANISS 2010

  • There were native Hawaiians, Japanese, Filipinos, Samoans, Okinawans, Chinese, and Portuguese, along with Anglos, commonly known as haole pronounced “howl-lay” and a smaller population of blacks, traditionally centered at the U.S. military installations.

    Into the Story DAVID MARANISS 2010

  • Rather than concern at being the victim of racism (after all, they were happy for me to play with their grandchild), being called haole in that space seemed simply a means of getting round his inability to grasp my name (not an altogether different reason for my calling him 'uncle').

    Bad Subjects - 76: Race and Culture sschaffer 2008

  • Instead of the dominant paradigm of ignoring racial difference in the name of equality and discretely shying away from at least the public use of racial categories, white people in Hawai'i are openly identified as haole - a category based both upon skin color and behavior; indeed a local who spends too much time on the mainland risks becoming 'haolefied' 'during their time there.

    Bad Subjects - 76: Race and Culture sschaffer 2008

  • But I do know that these experiences in both text and body added to and exploded assumptions so deeply held I did not know them until called haole by different people and with radically different meanings.

    Bad Subjects - 76: Race and Culture sschaffer 2008

  • In early newspaper examples, Silva reports how “haole” (white American) missionaries would appropriate “mana” to talk about God’s power.

    The Mysterious Mana of Speaking | JSTOR Daily Chi Luu 2018

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Pronounced: "How-leh" in the Hawaiian language, means "foreign" or "foreigner"; it can be used in reference to people, plants, and animals. A common popular etymology claim is that the word is derived from "h�?ʻole", literally meaning "no breath". Some Hawaiians say that because foreigners did not know or use the honi (the Hawaiian word for "kiss"), a Polynesian/Hawaiian greeting by touching nose-to-nose and inhaling or essentially sharing each other's breaths, and so the foreigners were described as "breathless." The implication is not only that foreigners are aloof and ignorant of local ways, but also literally have no spirit or life within. (Wikipedia)

    May 29, 2008