K’den shoots, there’s been a few recent inquiries looking for the Hawaiian pidgin meaning of “shoots.” Go spock the local meaning of shoots (not chutes).
K’den.
More local kine pidgin:
Now here’s an interesting one – cheehoo! This exclamation is a fairly recent addition to the Hawaii kine vernacular. It’s not old school pidgin since by no means did Andy Bumatai shout out cheehoo! in All in the Ohana
Notice too that I list cheehoo! with an exclamation point. The one thing with cheehoo! is that you have to say it from deep down. If you’re going to cheehoo!, you have to go for it and commit. Cheehoo! comes from the soul and isn’t for the meek. Watch local deejay, Slick Vic, demonstrate the proper cheehoo! to Matt Lauer and Savannah Guthrie when the Today Show visited the islands. Jump to 2:13 for the cheehoo! demonstration.
When done properly, a cheehoo! is truly a force. Witness a hearty cheehoo! stop the most powerful man in America. Not only did a cheehoo! interrupt President Barack Obama, it broke his train of thought, needing some time to regain his composure. Cheehoo!
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A quick review of recent searches here at Pulpconnection reveal some interesting sought for terms. There are searches for howlie, maho, and shoots. I can only guess, but “howlie” has to be haole aka the white person as explained in 21 Slangs Words You Should Know Before Visiting Hawaii (Part 1).
“Maho” I’m assuming is the transvestite mahu. I doubt the search was looking for the Hawaiian garb “malo.”
And then there’s “shoots.” Not chutes but shoots. Coincidentally, I recently used shoots in an informal email to a coworker. It was mot juste so I went with it, but I began thinking about the term and wondered where it came from. Basically, shoots is akin to an affirmative used to acknowledge or agree with something.
“I going stop by your house around 5.”
“Shoots.”
While shoots can stand alone, it’s frequently preceded by “k’den” or followed by “then” or “brah” – “k’den shoots” or “shoots brah.” What’s the etymology of this word, I have no guess. Just go with it okay? (And this is the part you reply back with “shoots!”).