meaning
up, top, above, highest part; divine, sacred, supernatural; awesome, inspiring, excelling
see also
semantic space · lipamanka
sewi embodies a very powerful conceptual metaphor that exists within toki pona. In toki pona, upwards and high things and divinity are connected. These are two seperate ideas that sewi connects by refering to both of them. Things that are religious or sacred can be sewi. For example, a religion could be "nasin sewi," religious art can be "sitelen sewi", and a god, practitioner, or religious wisdom holder can all be "jan sewi." sewi on its own can easily refer to that which is divine or worshipped. But sewi very simply talks about the space above something. "sewi kiwen" can mean "the space above the rock" or "the top of the rock." Keep in mind that all of these examples can work in the other sense of sewi. "nasin sewi" can mean an upwards direction, "sitelen sewi" can be the top painting of two paintings, and "jan sewi" can be someone who just climbed a big mountain. And of course, "sewi kiwen" could be the divinity of a rock.
ku translations
divine100 upper100 sacred80 top76 holy73 sky71 elevated69 high60 raise50 spiritual50 supreme50 highly47 peak43 God39 rise37 above36 superior36 magical30 summit27 arise25 religious25 upstairs25 weather25
pu verbatim
- NOUN area above, highest part, something elevated
- ADJECTIVE awe-inspiring, divine, sacred, supernatural
usage
core · 100% usage
found in pu
coined pre-pu
origin
Georgian · ზევით zevit ‘upwards’
coined by jan Sonja
listen
kala Asi
jan Lakuse
sitelen pona
sewi sewi2from arabic ١ّللَه “allah”
sitelen sitelen
sitelen jelo
☁️
sitelen Emosi
⬆️
ucsur
U+F195A