Year (ta'u), he-hoa ite ta'u, to confess to a crime committed long ago, by publishing it in the form of a kohau motu mo rogorogo (rongorongo tablet). Vanaga.

1.To hang (tau), to perch  (said of chickens on tree branches at night);  rock on the coast, taller than others so that something can be deposited on it without fear of seeing washed it away by the waves; hakarere i ruga i te tau, to place something on such a rock; tau kupega, rope from which is hung the oval net used in ature fishing. 2. Pretty, lovely; ka-tau! how pretty! Vanaga.

1. Year, season, epoch, age. 2. Fit, worthy, deserving, opportune; tae tau, impolite, ill-bred, unseemly; pei ra tau, system. 3. To perch. 4. To hang; hakatau, necklace; hakatautau, to append. 5. Anchor; kona tau, anchorage, port. 6. To fight; hakatau, challenge, to defy, to incite; hakatautau, to rival. Churchill.

The Malay word for 'year' is taun or tahun. In all Polynesian dialects the primary sense is 'a season', 'a period of time'. In the Samoan group tau or tausanga, besides the primary sense of season, has the definite meaning of 'a period of six months', and conventionally that of 'a year', as on the island of Tonga. Here the word has the further sense of 'the produce of the year', and derivatively 'a year'. In the Society group it simply means 'season'. In the Hawaiian group, when not applied to the summer season, the word keeps its original sense of 'an indefinite period of time', 'a life-time, an age', and is never applied to the year: its duration may be more or less than a year, according to circumstances. So far our authority (Fornander, I, 124; cp. 119). It seems however to be questionable whether the original sense is not the concrete 'produce of the seasons', rather than the abstract 'period of time'. It is significant that on the Society Islands the bread-fruit season is called te tau, and the names of the other two seasons, te tau miti rahi and te tau poai, are formed by adding to this name. Nilsson.

Prediction, prophecy, prognostic, to predict; tagata taku, wizard. P Ta.: tau, to invoke, to pray. Takurua, full of stones, pebbly, stony, a path among the rocks. Churchill.

Samoa: ta'u, to tell, to mention, to announce, to certify, to acknowledge. Tonga: taku, to call by, to designate; takua, to mention, to call by name. Rapanui; taku, to predict. Maori: takutaku, to threaten, to recite imprecations. Fotuna: no-tukua, to confess. Viti: tukuna, to report, to tell. Churchill 2.

At the risk of invoking the criticism, 'Astronomers rush in where philologists fear to tread', I should like to suggest that Taku-rua corresponds with the two-headed Roman god Janus who, on the first of January, looks back upon the old year with one head and forward to the new year with the other, and who is god of the threshold of the home as well as of the year... There is probably a play on words in takurua - it has been said that Polynesian phrases usually invoke a double meaning, a common and an esoteric one. Taku means 'slow', the 'back' of anything, 'rim' and 'command'. Rua is a 'pit', 'two' or 'double'. Hence takurua has been translated 'double command', 'double rim', and 'rim of the pit', by different authorities. Taku-pae is the Maori word for 'threshold'... Several Tuamotuan and Society Islands planet names begin with the word Takurua or Ta'urua which Henry translated Great Festivity and which is the name for the bright star Sirius in both New Zealand and Hawaii. The planet names, therefore, represent the final stage in the evolution of takurua which was probably first applied to the winter solstice, then to Sirius which is the most conspicious object in the evening sky of December and January, and was then finally employed for the brilliant and conspicious planets which outshone even the brightest star Sirius. From its association with the ceremonies of the new year and the winter solstice, takurua also aquired the meaning 'holiday' or 'festivity'. Makemson.

"Kau, v. Haw., to hang up, suspend, to tie or gird on, to put or place a thing, to fall upon, to put on, as a burden, to set or fix, as boundaries of a land, or a decree, to promulgate, as a law; in a neuter sense, to light down, as a bird, as a spiritual influence;

adj. a setting of the sun, a resting, a roost for fowls;

kau-a, to hesitate, be in doubt, suspense, to beg off;

kau-o, to draw, as a load; morally, to endure, to incline to, to pray for some special blessing;

kau-oha, a dying charge, bequest, covenant, commission, command;

kau-kai, to wait for an event, to expect;

kau-kau, to take counsel, to resolve, to chide, to reprove, to explain, make clear;

kau-la, a rope, cord, tendon, a prophet, a seer;

kau-la-i, to hang up, put up in the sun;

kau-lana, fame, report, renown;

ma-kau, be ready, prepared;

akau, the right hand (dexter), to be right, to the north, north.

In the Southern dialects we find:

Tong., tau, to hang, overhang, impend, extend to, fit, be suitable; ma-tau, the right hand; ta-tau, equal, like (balanced); tau-la, a cable; tau-ranga, an anchoring place.

Sam., tau, to rest on, light on, fall on; faa-ta-tau, to compare; tau, what is proper and right; tau-au, to tend towards, either decline or increase; tau-me, stretch up the hand and not reach, to desire and not obtain; tau-i, reward, payment, revenge; tau-la, an anchor, to anchor, the priest of a god; tau-la-i, to hang up to; tau-langa, a sacred offering, an anchorage; tau-lalo, let the hands drop in fighting, be conquered; tau-tau, to hang, hang up; ma-tau, right-hand side, an axe; faa-tau, equally, alike; v. to buy, barter, sell; faa-tau-oa, a merchant.

Marqu., tau, to carry on the back; tau-tau, suspended, hung up; ta-tau, to count, reckon; tau-a, a rope, a priest; a-tau, ka-tau, an achor.

N. Zeal., tau, besided previous meanings, to meet; ma-tau, expert, dexterous, shrewd.

Tah., tau, to hang upon, an anchor; tau-ai, to hang up, spread out, as clothes to dry; tau-i, price, cost, to exchange, buy; tau-ra, cord, a troop, crowd, be inspired, a prophet; tau-e, a swing, see-saw; tau-piri, tail for a kite; tau-mata, a visor, a mask; tau-mi, a breastplate, plastron; a-tau, right hand, to the right.

Fiji., tau, to fall, as of rain, to fall upon; tau-ca, to place or put down a thing; tau-nga, a swinging shelf.

Malg., mang-hatau, mana-tao, to place, put ..." (Fornander)