meaning
hard object e.g. metal, stone, wood
semantic space · lipamanka
kiwen are things whose form resists changing. This is almost always a hard physical material or object, like a rock or wood or crystal. It can describe something's material, so a chair made out of a hard material could be kiwen. kiwen can be brittle. Some rocks break apart easily, but they're still kiwen. But there are many brittle things that are not kiwen, so while kiwen can refer to brittle things, it never means "brittle."
It is additionally possible to talk about nonphysical things using kiwen, but it's imperative to explain your metaphor clearly. Ask two toki ponists about what kiwen means metaphysically and you'll get three answers. None of them are universally intuitive. Without this extra expansion, it's a good idea to avoid using kiwen to talk about non-physical things.
pu definition
- NOUN hard object, metal, rock, stone
ku translations
solid100 rock93 stone84 hard object79 concrete60 metal57 steel56 iron50 firm44 stiff44 silver31 plastic25
usage
core · 99% usage
found in pu
coined pre-pu
origin
coined by jan Sonja
listen
kala Asi
jan Lakuse
commentary
This word was coined in a poll in 2002, replacing the compound phrase "wawa ma".
sitelen pona
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ucsur
U+F191B