Language exchange

Captain Cook

While writing about Captain James Cook's visit to Tahiti in 1769 in Blue Latitudes, Tony Horwitz tells us how Englishmen adopted words from the Tahitian language into English and how, at the same time, Tahitians made English words their own.

For example, two common English words — taboo and tattoo — originated in Tahiti. Tahitian women never ate in the presence of men, Cook wrote in his journal. The reason given was that it was considered tapu.

Tahitian natives used burnt candlenut to tattow their skin, leaving a blueish purple stain. Cook wrote that several of his crewmen underwent the same painful procedure, becoming the first sailors to get tattoos.

Because all Tahitian words ended with a vowel, they brought English words into their language by adding a vowel, Horwitz explains. Thus, a nail became a naero. A hammer became a hamara. The Tahitian greeting yoana is believed to have come from the English phrase "your honor."

As for Cook himself, he was called Toote.