meaning
Πουλί, ιπτάμενο πλάσμα, φτερωτό ζώο
semantic space · lipamanka
waso are creatures. they almost always have wings, and when they want to move quickly they use those wings to propel them forward. They frequently have feathers. They have two legs that they use to walk on land. waso usually lay eggs and often (but not always) sing. many speakers use waso to refer to things like planes that aren't living creatures, which has been especially common in my experience with toki pona meetups, where the flight itself and the plane are both called waso. This usage is controversial though. waso can be used to refer to birds that don't fly or use their wings to fly, such as ostraches, kiwi birds, or penguins, and doing so shows the way you split up the animal kingdom. there are quite a few speakers (including myself) who don't use waso for these creatures, and that shows the way we split up the animal kingdom too. This semantic space is based off a pilot study I conducted with a sample size of 117. I will publish the results in a paper if enough people bother me.
ku translations
bird100, chicken44, duck40, turkey33, eagle30, bat23
pu verbatim
NOUN bird, flying creature, winged animal
usage
core · 100% usage
found in pu
coined pre-pu
origin
Acadian French · oiseau ‘bird’
coined by jan Sonja
sitelen pona
wasoanimal radical; pictogram of a bird
sitelen sitelen
sitelen jelo
🐦
sitelen Emosi
🦅
ucsur
U+F1974